SAIC Planning to Buy GM's Vauxhall?

Even though we're again dealing with some kind of rumor, this is the second time in a few days when Shanghai car-maker SAIC makes the headline with some surprising industry news. According to a report by The Telegraph, SAIC contacted General Motors and discussed the possibility to take over a controlling stake in the British automaker.

Things are pretty sketchy at this point but it seems that SAIC may be the company to take over the majority stake of a company established to control Vauxhall and Opel. German banking group Commerzbank has been selected to supervise the whole process, as General Motors repeatedly insisted that it Opel and Vauxhall should start looking for outside investors.

Although not clear, in case the deal goes through, General Motors would retain a minority stake in the company, the aforementioned source wrote.

There are already several parties interested in buying stakes in the two automakers but General Motors has always declined to disclose too many details about the involved names.

Although the company is fighting for survival, General Motors denied in late March that it applied for financial support from the British government, explaining that Vauxhall is currently capable of getting through the crisis without help. "We've been having top level discussions with BERR about the GME viability plans. But we haven't yet gotten to the stage of what we need in the UK in terms of support," Denis Chick, GM's director of UK communications, said at that time.

On the other hand, GM is involved in a long series of negotiations with the German authorities over a financial package for local ailing automaker Opel. GM says it needs 3.3 billion euros to survive the recession.