GM said Thursday that it would sell 55 percent of Opel to Magna, which is backed by Russia’s OAO Sberbank and auto maker OAZ Gaz, The Wall Street Journal reported. Employees would hold a 10 percent sake in Opel and the U.S. auto maker would retain the remaining 35 percent, GM said. The Opel Trust currently controls 65 percent of Opel, while GM owns 35 percent.

Opel has operations across Europe, employing about 54,500 people. Its main manufacturing plants are in Germany, the U.K., Spain, Belgium and Poland.

The agreement will keep Opel/Vauxhall a fully integrated part of GM’s global product-development organization, GM said. The German government is set to support financing through additional state guarantees, the company said. GM will also negotiate with labor unions to reduce costs. Those agreements are expected to be ready “within a few weeks,” with the deal closing in the “next few months,” GM said.

“All parties will work hard to close the deal as soon as possible,” said John Smith, GM vice president for business development, who has been leading negotiations for GM.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she believes all open points “are negotiable and manageable.”

“We’ve come a long way toward Opel having a new beginning,” she said.

Merkel said talks would be held in the coming weeks with other countries where Opel has locations to ensure the burdens of restructuring will be shared fairly. Germany’s lead role in pushing the Magna deal led to fears it would seek to protect its workers first.

GM and Magna had been working to resolve differences over rights to intellectual property and financing. GM has been majority-owned by the U.S. government since the auto maker emerged from bankruptcy in July.

The U.K. government said it will continue talks with Magna aimed at ensuring the best possible result for workers at Vauxhall, business minister Pat McFadden said Thursday.

The U.K. government’s “objective throughout has been to get the best possible outcome for the Vauxhall work force and the production plants in the U.K.,” Mr. McFadden said. “We will now continue our discussions with Magna. They have told us of their commitment to continuing production at both Ellesmere Port and Luton.”

GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson laid out four options to the board at a two-day meeting that concluded Wednesday: keeping Opel, liquidating the unit, selling it to the Magna consortium or selling it to Belgian investment firm RHJ International Inc. RHJ declined to comment Thursday.

The board was to determine whether keeping Opel could be a better option than selling a majority stake in exchange for German loan guarantees.

The stakes in GM’s decision are high for the government of Merkel, who faces national elections on Sept. 27. The jobs of thousands of workers are on the line at Opel’s plants, which employ roughly 25,000 people in Germany.

The German government has supplied roughly $2 billion, in bridge financing to help keep Opel afloat while a deal was being hammered . The financing, and any further aid, is considered contingent on whether GM decides to sell to Magna.

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said Wednesday that GM would have to repay the aid the German government has provided if GM decided to keep the unit.

GM signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with Magna in May, but said it was open to other offers.

One of GM’s concerns about selling Opel was the possibility of its technology being copied by rivals. It had rejected a bid for Opel from China’s Beijing Automotive Industry Holding because the U.S. auto maker was concerned about its intellectual property going to China. It had similar concerns about Magna. But Magna tried to address such concerns, and GM indicated Thursday that it sees Opel as a joint-venture partner going forward, benefiting from shared technologies, development and purchasing.

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