Saab's Future Secured

[moto-camaro]

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Tiny Spyker Completes Purchase Of Giant Saab

Specialist Dutch sports car maker Spyker has announced it has finalised the purchase of Swedish giant Saab from General Motors.

Spyker, a minnow in the global car industry, has just 250 of its vehicles on the road in the world - explained by their price tag of at least £175,000 each.

It has a workforce of about 90 assembly workers, with manufacture set to move to Coventry, while Saab has 3,400 employees in Sweden alone.

Following the completion of the deal, Saab Automobile and Spyker Cars will now operate as sister companies going forward, the Dutch company said.

They will both be held by holding company Spyker Cars NV, which is listed on the Amsterdam Euronext exchange.

"We are delighted. Saab's future is now secure," Spyker chief Victor Muller said in the statement.

"From today we will be concentrating all of our efforts into reviving Saab and transforming it into a sustainable and profitable company with the confidence to be bold."

Spyker reached a deal with GM last month to buy Saab for £48m in cash and leave GM with preferred shares in Saab worth £210 million.

The agreement was in part financed by a £350m loan that was backed by the Swedish government.

Saab's future hung in the balance throughout 2009 as GM went through bankruptcy and sought to sell off unprofitable assets in an overhaul of its business.

"Now we aim to get back to the execution of our business plan, starting with the introduction of the new 9-5 later this year," said Jan Jonsson, the Swedish executive who will run Saab under Mr Muller's supervision.

"The level of passion and support shown to Saab over recent months has been remarkable and this does bode well for the future," he added.

Looks like Saab will live on, should be interesting to see what Spyker does with it

[DGthe3]

Whats this giant Sweedish company Saab? I know there is a small automotive brand from Sweeden named Saab, but they only sold 23k units worldwide. Hardly a giant.

Anywho, for Sweedens sake, I hope Spyker keeps Saab alive. But I just don't see how they can. They'd need to either charge a lot more for each vehicle, or massively increase their sales volume, like several times what they already move.

[moto-camaro]

my concern is how they're going to distribute.... spyker dealers are hardly commonplace.
they're either going to have to invest in creating a dealer network, or try and get an agreement to distribute through an existing network.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by moto-camaro

my concern is how they're going to distribute.... spyker dealers are hardly commonplace.
they're either going to have to invest in creating a dealer network, or try and get an agreement to distribute through an existing network.

At least in North America, that won't be hard. There are hundreds of Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge lots sitting around, and a bunch of former GM lots are becoming vacant too. In Europe, I think they typically just have a showroom and you order your car from there so its not much of an issue

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Whats this giant Sweedish company Saab? I know there is a small automotive brand from Sweeden named Saab, but they only sold 23k units worldwide. Hardly a giant.

Anywho, for Sweedens sake, I hope Spyker keeps Saab alive. But I just don't see how they can. They'd need to either charge a lot more for each vehicle, or massively increase their sales volume, like several times what they already move.

[THUMPER20X]

Theyd really have to shake up the Saab brand to get this to work. Maybe some real sporty stuff or something interesting. I dunno, as long as they stop making cars that look like shoes.