OREANDA-NEWS. September 11, 2009. GM BoD has agreed to sell its 55% stake in Opel to Canada’s Magna and Russian lender Sberbank, the automotive giant announced Thursday. GM will retain 35% of its German auto producer’s securities, with another 10% to be held by Opel employees.

Opel’s board of trustees consisting of two GM executives, two German government appointees and a neutral chairman approved the sale of the auto maker to the Russian-Canadian consortium. Trustee board chairman Fred Irwin noted that this deal does not mean the company’s rescue and a lot of work still needs to be done.

He also said that the decision adopted by the board of trustees was not unanimous. A number of key terms of the transaction, GM said in a statement, will be discussed over the next few weeks after which a final binding agreement will be signed. One such term will be restrictions on assigning GM technologies to Russia, a German source said.