Despite an agreement signed with Magna International, General Motors is apparently considering a bid by China’s Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corporation (BAIC) for the Detroit automaker’s Opel unit. A source said that BAIC will make a binding offer to GM within a few weeks, but analysts indicate that GM will only consider the offer if the Magna deal falls through.
BAIC’s bid comes as little surprise since GM has balked at Magna’s request, at the request of its Russian creditors, for additional access to the automaker’s technologies. GM had agreed to sell a controlling share in Opel to Magna and Sberbank, but it had not wanted to share any of its domestic technology.
Sources close to BAIC have said that the automaker’s bid was just two pages long and does not detail its intentions for Opel beyond expanding the German automaker to a worldwide presence. GM has been reluctant to negotiate with Chinese automakers because it fears losing its grip on the Chinese market, where Buick , in particular, is a major player.
