Hesse premier joins chorus opposing BAIC Opel offer

FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - The premier of the German state of Hesse, which is helping to finance GM's GMGMQ.PK Opel operations, on Friday rejected a plan by Beijing Automotive to take over the carmaker.

Premier Roland Koch said BAIC could not submit a very attractive offer for Opel, as it was a "very, very small" company, and he reiterated that Canadian auto parts supplier Magna (MGa.TO) was the frontrunner to buy Opel.

"There is a preferred bidder, and only when that deal falls through will the others be in the running again," Koch said on the sidelines of a meeting of Germany's Bundesrat upper house of parliament.

Koch was joining a chorus of voices opposing the BAIC bid. The state of Thuringia, which is also helping finance GM's Opel operations, said on Tuesday is opposed the bid.

BAIC's non-binding offer document, which was sent to GM on July 2 and obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, shows that the state-owned group would use Opel's brand and technology to tap the huge and growing Chinese market and sell nearly half a million cars there.

BAIC's plans, which could make Opel a major player in China by 2015, hinge on GM agreeing to share cutting-edge technology such as fuel cells and hybrids.

"With BAIC, I see a big danger that this company, that produces 12,000 vehicles a year, does not have the necessary competence and will not be up to the task at hand," Oliver Burkhard, a regional leader of industrial union IG Metall, told Reuters on Friday.

"There is no alternative to Magna," Burkhard said. (Reporting by Nikola Rotscheroth in Duesseldorf and Georg Merzinger in Frankfurt, Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by David Cowell)