Magna gets early nod in race for GM's Opel

By Noah Barkin and Christiaan Hetzner

BERLIN (Reuters) - Magna International (MGa.TO) emerged on Friday as a favourite to acquire General Motors' GM.N Opel unit after top German officials said the Canadian car parts group had submitted a better plan than rival bidders Fiat (FIA.MI) and Belgian-listed private equity investor RHJ International (RHJI.BR).

At a briefing in Berlin, Magna co-Chief Executive Siegfried Wolf laid out the company's Opel plan for the first time, confirming it aims to team up with Russian partners but leave existing GM Europe managers to run the new group.

Crucially, Wolf vowed to retain all four Opel plants in Germany, where politicians face a federal election in September.

Late Friday, Magna said confirmed had teamed up with Russian bank Sberbank Rossii to submit a "non-binding indicative" offer to invest 700 million euro (615 million pounds) in Opel. It also said a portion of its investment would be guaranteed by the German government.

Under the offer, GM would keep a 35 percent equity stake in Opel, while Sberbank would take 35 percent, Magna would get 20 percent and Opel's employees would get 10 percent, Magna said in a statement.

"Under our concept the German sites are seen as assets and we want to keep as many jobs as possible," Wolf said. "There is a lot of know-how within the German Opel plants."

German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg emerged from a meeting of top ministers at which the offers were evaluated and said none of the bidders had been ruled out, but that the Magna offer had strengths.

"It would be premature to write anyone off. But it is true that we have heard many concrete things from Magna," he said.