At what can only be described as the 59th minute of the eleventh hour, Dutch supercar maker Spyker has been approved by General Motors as the buyer for the Saab brand. It’s been a long and bizarre road; just since last August, a previous sale of Saab to Koenigsegg Group AB fell through, the brand was declared dead, some Saab assets were sold to a Chinese company, and the possibility of a sale was revived, with Formula 1 czar Bernie Ecclestone becoming involved.
Saab’s future has been in doubt since the ink was still wet on the General’s own agreement to buy the company—100-percent ownership was finalized in 2000 and Saab has bled red like a stuck pig ever since—but the storied Swedish company’s doom never appeared so imminent as in the aftermath of GM’s 2009 bankruptcy.
GM is hopeful that the deal should be wrapped in its entirety up by the middle of next month, at which point Spyker will create a new company—Saab Spyker Automobiles—placing both its ostentatious supercar and quirky Swedish sides under the same roof. The sale also means that the winding down and liquidation of Saab will be halted. The terms of the sale involve General Motors receiving $74 million in cash as well as $326 million in preferred shares of Saab Spyker Automobiles, although the latter portion is purely theoretical at this point. Even after the deal is finalized, GM will continue to provide what was termed "transition-oriented engineering resources," as well as powertrain components for an unspecified but "mutually agreeable period of time."
The deal was contingent on the securing of a $564 million loan to Saab through the European Investment Bank, a money-lending organization backed by the governments of the European Union; failure to secure the loan likely would have collapsed the deal and doomed Saab all over again. The loan has been guaranteed by the Swedish government, providing crucial funding that will allow Saab to continue operations.
Perhaps the most notable thing about this sale—besides the fact that someone actually wanted Saab—is that it means that a European brand is being bought by Europeans. Volvo is in the process of being sold by Ford to a Chinese company, and Jaguar and Land Rover recently were bought by Tata, an Indian conglomerate.
The Saab lineup is set to receive three all-new vehicles in the near future: the 9-4X crossover and the redesigned 9-5 sedan and 9-5 SportCombi. GM stands to benefit from more than just the money and stock garnered by the sale; in addition to the aforementioned resources, it will also provide fully assembled 9-4X units, utilizing existing plant capacity. Saab Spyker will pay GM for each 9-4X built—perhaps allowing GM to finally turn a healthy profit on a vehicle. Full-scale production of the 9-5 is scheduled to begin in April at Saab's Trollhättan plant.
Thanks to: Car and Driver