The president of General Motors Corp.'s (GMGMQ) European unit said Friday he expects a definitive agreement for an acquisition of the business by Magna International Inc. (MGA) to be reached by July, with the closing of the deal to be completed by September.

"But as our partners at Magna have stated as well, while we're all fully committed to getting this deal done, much work remains and much could happen along the way," Carl-Peter Forster wrote in his corporate blog.

"If we succeed, I'm very confident that the new Opel/Vauxhall will have an excellent base to grow its future business to the benefit of all involved," he said.

Last week, the German government agreed to provide EUR1.5 billion in bridge financing to keep GM's Adam Opel GmbH unit afloat and enable it to forge a deal with Magna, despite the bankruptcy filing of parent GM in the U.S.

The agreement to establish a trusteeship for Opel was reached after two late-night negotiating sessions between company executives, the German government, German state governors and the U.S. Treasury.

Forster said that U.S. representatives were "often on the receiving end of criticism by certain voices in labor and politics," particularly after talks almost collapsed May 27 over an alleged extra cash demand of EUR350 million by GM.

"Let me state clearly that this was a misunderstanding of expectations that arose late in the process and was in no way a mistake or manipulation by our finance team," Forster said.

"There was no additional amount of financing that was being asked for. It was just a simple clarification of the first draw we needed to take at the beginning of June to meet our cash flow needs and pay our suppliers," he said, adding that this cash need was "higher than the government was led to believe by people advising."

Forster said that it's "the nature of intense negotiations that they go through at least a couple of near-death experiences before they rebound. In this case, we had several."

"The trust agreement we established is a German KG company in charge of holding 65% of the shares in Adam Opel in accordance with the rules of a trust deed agreed between GM and the German government," Forster said, adding that the trust company is controlled by advisers instructed by GM and the German government. It won't, however, be in control of Opel's daily operations, which "will continue as usual."

Company Web site: www.opel.com

-By Christoph Rauwald, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 512; christoph.rauwald@dowjones.com