GM hopes to wrap efforts to buy China joint venture stake

Chevrolet Cruze vehicles are displayed at Courtesy Chevrolet dealership in Phoenix, Arizona, January 4, 2011.

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) hopes to soon wrap up efforts to buy back a 1 percent stake in its Chinese joint venture that it previously sold to its partner, SAIC Motor (600104.SS), the U.S. automaker's chief executive said on Tuesday.

"It's in process. We hope that will be resolved in the coming months," GM CEO Dan Akerson told reporters at the Detroit auto show. "I know it's been to their board."

Akerson and other GM executives have repeatedly said the company has the option to raise its ownership stake in Shanghai GM, its Chinese joint venture with SAIC, to 50 percent from the present 49 percent.

GM sold a 1 percent stake in Shanghai GM, which commands the market-leading position in China, to SAIC in 2010 for about $85 million.

Under the terms of its deal with SAIC, negotiated in 2009 when GM was looking to raise cash and avoid bankruptcy, GM has an option to buy back that 1 percent stake. SAIC is the majority shareholder in the China joint venture with a 51 percent holding.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman; editing by John Wallace)