Russian billionaire buys small GM stake - report

MOSCOW, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, owner of automaker GAZ (GAZA.RTS), has bought a stake in General Motors (GM.N) of about 5 percent, newspaper Vedomosti on Tuesday quoted sources close to Deripaska as saying.

The sources said Deripaska bought the shares on the open market, that the stake was under five percent and that he had no intention of increasing his stake, the newspaper added.

A spokesman for Deripaska, Russia's second richest man with a fortune last estimated by Forbes Magazine at $16.8 billion, declined to comment on the report.

A five percent stake in GM at Monday's closing price of $32.45 per share would have cost Deripaska around $900 million.

Five percent is the level at which Deripaska would have to declare the stake, the newspaper said.

Deripaska's Basic Element company agreed in May to invest $1.54 billion in Canadian auto parts supplier Magna (MGa.TO). His business group has denied being interested in the Jaguar and Land Rover brands put up for sale by Ford Motor Co (F.N).

GM is in the middle of a wide restructuring that includes cutting more than 34,000 jobs and closing 12 plants in North America.