A new Canadian-Austrian-Russian plan for Opel has emerged.

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Magna International aims to create a European-Russian automaker making up to 5m cars a year, German daily Rheinische Post said, citing company sources.


Under its proposal, dubbed project ‘Beam’, the company would take over Opel jointly with GAZ and Sberbank to sell 1m cars a year to the Russian market, the paper reported on Friday, according to Reuters.


Magna would present the proposal to the German government on 20 May the reports said. A German government spokesman declined to comment.


Reuters said GM Europe made 1.7m cars in 2008 and sold 2m.

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The news agency noted that the Rheinische Post echoed previous reports in saying that Magna aimed to take on a 19.9% stake of the merged entity, while GAZ and Russia’s Sberbank would jointly hold 30.1% and GM would have up to 40%.


Opel’s management and dealerships could also hold a stake.


GAZ and its owner, billionaire Oleg Deripaska, have repeatedly told Reuters they denied interest in Opel.


Handelsblatt newspaper earlier this week cited a spokesman for GAZ as saying that the company had been invited to join a consortium bidding for Opel, and that the company would review the invitation. GAZ had declined to comment to Reuters.