In a similar scenario to the Saturn - Penske story which ended with GM's decision to wind down the brand, tiny super car maker Koenigsegg, backed by China's BAIC, pulled out of a deal to acquire GM's Swedish Saab unit only a week away before a November 30 deadline. And even though the Swedish government has some hopes that a new buyer might be found to save Saab, the future of the brand looks very dim."For every day that passes the challenge gets bigger and bigger," Swedish Enterprise Minister Maud Olofsson told reporters.
An insider told Bloomberg that General Motors' board will decide the future of Saab at its monthly meeting on December 1st. The person added that the automaker doesn't expect any other bidders to emerge and that a shutdown is imminent.
"They should just get rid of it," told the news site Tom Stallkamp, industrial partner at buyout firm Ripplewood Holdings LLC, which took part in an unsuccessful bid for GM's Opel division. "Saab really doesn't matter in terms of technology, and there is no synergy like there was with Opel."
Easy to say when you don't take into consideration the fact that behind the nameplate there are people with families as Saab employs around 3,500 workers in Trollhattan while thousands of other jobs are also linked to the firm. If you take a moment to think about that, it actually does matter...
Unfortunately though, the harsh reality is that if GM were to restart the sales process of Saab, it would be extremely difficult to find a willing buyer to complete the deal in a short time frame. If it were to take longer, the Detroit automaker would have to continue to fund Saab and that, doesn't seem to be a viable option for GM today.
Many like Stephen Pope, chief global strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald in London, seem to agree that Saab's days are numbered. "That's it, goodnight, goodbye," Pope told Bloomberg. "Saab has reached the end of the road, there's nothing left in the tank."
There have been reports that China's BAIC as well as Geely, might be interested in Saab. However, Geely is already in talks with Ford for its Volvo unit so we seriously doubt that they will turn their focus on Saab at this moment while in what concerns BAIC, analysts believe that the if the Chinese firm decides to show an interest, it will most likely be for Saab's assets and not the company as a whole.
General Motors has just announced that the proposed sale of its Saab unit to a consortium led by Swedish sports car maker Koenigsegg has been canceled. And this time, it's not because the Detroit automaker wanted to keep Saab as was the case with Opel, but because Koenigsegg backed out of the purchasing of the Swedish brand in the same way that Penske did with Saturn.
"We're obviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the Saab purchase," said GM President and CEO, Fritz Henderson.
"Many have worked tirelessly over the past several months to create a sustainable plan for the future of Saab by selling the brand and its manufacturing interests to Koenigsegg Group AB. Given the sudden change in direction, we will take the next several days to assess the situation and will advise on the next steps next week," Henderson added.
In September, Koenigsegg Group AB had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Co. Ltd. (BAIC) to explore growth opportunities in the Chinese and international markets for the products of both SAAB and BAIC.
The Swedish sports car maker has yet to release an official statement on the matter.
Of course, accidents can happen. But it's one thing getting into a fender bender with a Ford Taurus and another when you destroy a customer's $500,000+ supercar. According to the crash-addicted folks over at 'Wrecked Exotics', this accident happened when a New York dealer took his customer's 2008 Koenigsegg CCX for a joy ride only to end up crashing into a guardrail and then on a Porsche 911 GT2. We'd love to read the insurance claim on this one..Via: Wrecked Exotics
As the saying goes, another man's trash, well you know the rest... Citing unnamed sources, UK's Autocar magazine is reporting that China's Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) is interested in buying the tooling and design rights to the outgoing Saab 9-5 that is to be replaced by an all-new model in 2010. The report does not clarify if BAIC wants to start production of the previous Saab 9-5 in China as is or if the company will perform a light makeover (another word for changing badges...) as was the case with China's SAIC and the Rover 75.And if you're wondering what's the deal between state-run BAIC and Saab, the Chinese company recently took a minority stake in Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg, which is planning to take over Saab from General Motors. The two involved parties have yet to finalize the deal.
Via: Autocar
Our Swedish pals over at Sportbilen made their way to Mantorp Park this past weekend to attend the 2009 Action Meet racing event. The crew had the chance to film the only Swedish registered Koenigsegg CCR Evolution (yes, that's the company that acquired SAAB) during the quarter mile run. From what they told us, the specific Koenigsegg CCR had been upgraded with the newer CCX's 4.7-liter supercharged V8 engine (hence the Evolution nametag) that churns out a hefty 806 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and a peak torque of 920 Nm (693 ft/lb) at 5500 rpm.On the first run, the Koenigsegg CCR Evolution clicked off a 12.02 second quarter-mile sprint time and a top speed of 213,64 km/h or 132.9 mph while the second and last attempt returned a time of 11.43 seconds (top speed wasn't recorded due to a technical issue). For the record, the CCR Evolution was fitted with normal sport tyres.
Pics and Video: Sportbilen - Thanks Bo!
