German state mulls taking Opel stake: paper

BERLIN (Reuters) - Thuringia is ready to consider taking a stake in U.S. carmaker General Motors' (GM.N) German unit Opel if the subsidiary is spun off, the German state's economy minister Juergen Reinholz told a newspaper.

"We want to do everything we can to help Opel," Reinholz told the Berliner Zeitung daily on Thursday.

He added that the eastern state, which is home to an Opel plant, was prepared to consider taking a direct stake in the company "if it is released into independence." Thuringia could also offer aid or guarantees to the carmaker, he added.

As it battles to survive a slump in demand, the debt-laden GM has said its European business, which also includes Saab in Sweden and Vauxhall in Britain, would likely post a profit in 2011 at the earliest after radical cost cuts.

"We can't be precise about our help until we hear about precise plans from General Motors. But in first discussions about a guarantee, a sum of 20 million to 40 million euros was what we talked about for Thuringia," the minister added.

"Big cuts or even a closure of an Opel plant are not acceptable to us," Reinholz said.

(Writing by Dave Graham, editing by Will Waterman)