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As General Motors is working to prepare a more rigorous business plan to meet the requirements of the auto task force, Saab is in its own talks to save itself once GM lets the Swedish brand go.
As has been known for some time, Saab is not high on the priority list at GM. GM’s Swedish brand has been looking for a suitor since GM announced plans to let Saab go as of January 1, 2010. Saab said today that it has signed confidentiality agreements with twenty-seven potential suitors.
Earlier this month, Saab’s court-appointed administrator said that about twenty potential buyers. The administrator also said that a sale was expected to be completed in June. It’s interesting that with the approaching expected sale date, more suitors have come to Saab, a brand GM could not make profitable.
“It is of course positive that there has been this level of interest,” said Saab spokeswoman Gunilla Gustavs. She added that Saab had held meetings with representatives of the potential buyers this week. “We are now in an intense and more organized phase of presenting the company to potential interested parties,” she said later on.
Saab filed for bankruptcy on February 20th of this year and recently won more time to restructure when a Swedish court extended the time period in which the company is protected from creditors. Saab’s reorganization plan calls for $1 billion of financing in order to revamp its lineup. With the sale of Saab looking to be almost guaranteed now, it will come as a boost to both Saab and to cash-strapped parent company GM.
Source: Automotive News
I’m really hoping for a merger/buyout with Subaru/Fuji Heavy Industries. The SAAB 9-2X was a really nice collaborative piece, and I feel there’s considerable common ground for idiosyncratic engineering, quirky styling, winter-driving utility, and a sophisticated, rugged-individualist customer base between the two companies. In this sense, SAAB could become a sort of “upscale Subaru” (much as Audi is to VW) as Subaru becomes a more “affordable SAAB”. Besides, I’d just like any excuse to use the nickname “SAABuru” more often.