plus 4, Text Size - Chicago Tribune

Text Size - Chicago Tribune
Saab may get a second life - CNN Money
Beijing Autos to explore new cooperation with Saab - WTOP
Spyker in 11th-hour offer to buy Saab from GM - Times Online
Automotive products lead the way as wholesale sales edge up in October ... - Stockhouse

Posted: 20 Dec 2009 02:05 AM PST

General Motors Co.'s plans to save Saab by selling it have failed, and the Swedish brand will be the latest to hit the scrap pile, the automaker said.

GM said Friday that last-minute negotiations to sell Saab to Dutch automaker Spyker Cars fell through because of due-diligence issues that could not be resolved.

Those talks followed the breakup of a deal to sell Saab to Sweden-based carmaker Koenigsegg Automotive AB late last month.

"We regret that we were not able to complete this transaction," said Nick Reilly, president of GM Europe. "We will work closely with the Saab organization to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner."

Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker, a producer of exotic sports cars, expressed his "regret" that the deal could not be completed. "We worked 24/7 for three weeks, but the complexity of the transaction, in combination with the strict deadline, simply did not allow us to complete the transaction."

Separate talks with a Chinese automaker have resulted in the sale of some powertrain technology owned by Saab but will not save the brand, which GM has had a stake in since 1990 and fully owned since 2000.

As a result, the company will initiate activities to shutter Saab, a process it also has been undergoing with the Pontiac and Saturn brands.

GM's restructuring plans included keeping four of its eight brands: Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac. Before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this year, GM said it would kill off Pontiac and attempt to sell Saab, Saturn and Hummer.

A deal to sell Saturn to car distributor Penske Automotive ran aground in late September, leaving only Hummer still in play. That sale, to a Chinese firm, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., is being finalized.

The winding down of Saab will begin immediately, GM said. Car owners will be able to obtain warranty service, and parts for the vehicles will continue to be available.

"We expect Saab to satisfy debts, including supplier payments, and to wind down production and the distribution channel in an orderly manner while looking after our customers," Reilly said.

Saab has 3,400 employees worldwide and 1,100 dealers.

Through the first 11 months of this year, GM sold 7,812 Saab cars and SUVs in the United States, a 61 percent decline from a year earlier. The brand's worldwide sales are expected to come in under 50,000 units this year, down from a high of 133,000 in 2006.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Saab may get a second life - CNN Money

Posted: 20 Dec 2009 09:00 AM PST

by Catherine Tymkiw, producer and Peter Valdes-Dapena, senior writerDecember 20, 2009: 2:06 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Don't close the coffin on Saab just yet.

Spyker, a Dutch maker of exotic cars, said Sunday that it had made a new offer to General Motors for the Swedish car brand.

GM announced on Friday that it would let the brand die after it had failed to reach a deal with potential buyers, including Spyker and Swedish carmaker Koenigsegg.

Early Sunday, Spyker Chief Executive Victor Muller said the company had submitted a proposal that addresses the issues that had hung up a deal.

"Despite our collective 11th-hour set-back, we are returning to the table with a renewed offer, that addresses every known issue brought to light during the initial negotiations and that has the full backing of the Saab management," Muller said in a statement.

"Our efforts are based on our passion for saving an iconic brand that we would be honored to shepherd, and the jobs and livelihoods of thousands of loyal Saab employees, suppliers and dealers around the world," he added.

Some 3,400 employees globally would be directly affected by Saab's closure, according to GM spokesman Chris Pruess.

In a statement on Sunday, GM said it had "received inquires from several parties" following Friday's announcement. The company added that it would "evaluate each inquiry."

Spyker's offer is set to expire Monday at 5 p.m. ET.

Saab has never been a big-selling car brand, but the recent global recession and news of the brand's possible demise have driven sales down to crisis levels. Saab's U.S. sales have fallen by more than half so far this year.

Sweden's other major automaker, Volvo, is currently owned by Ford (F, Fortune 500), which is in the process of selling it to the Chinese automaker Geely.

GM previously said that the potential deals with both Spyker and Koenigsegg fell through because of unspecified issues that arose during negotiations.

As of Friday, GM was still planning to sell some Saab 9-3 and 9-5 technologies to the Chinese automaker Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Co. Ltd. That deal was announced last week.

GM has owned a major stake in the Swedish automaker since 1989 and took full ownership in 2000; Saab has been making cars since 1949. GM will now begin winding down Saab production, but warranties will continue to be honored, and spare parts will still be available, the company said.

In the past two decades, GM has made every effort to turn Saab into a profitable car brand, Smith said. But recent global economic problems were simply too much for the still-weak automaker to survive.

As part of its government-sponsored bankruptcy restructuring, GM planned to sell of or wind down four of the eight brands it recently operated.

Pontiac is being wound down; a deal to sell the Saturn brand to Penske Automotive fell through in September; and a deal to sell the Hummer SUV brand to Chinese heavy equipment maker Sichuan Tengzhong is awaiting government approvals.

GM's remaining brands are Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.

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Beijing Autos to explore new cooperation with Saab - WTOP

Posted: 18 Dec 2009 04:45 AM PST

BEIJING (AP) - Beijing Autos said Friday it wants to explore further cooperation with GM's Saab Automobile such as "new energy vehicles," after earlier announcing the purchase of car and engine technology from the struggling brand.

Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings President Wang Dazhong said Saab also wants his company to import and sell Saab brand vehicles in China, which this year became the world's biggest auto market.

The state-owned company announced Monday it had agreed to buy some powertrain technology for Saab's 9-5 and 9-3 sedans, including engine and gearbox knowhow.

In a briefing Friday, Wang would not say how much Beijing Autos paid.

Under the deal, Saab will also support Beijing Autos' efforts to build its own car brands, using the Saab technology.

"We need to grow a global company," Wang said. "We need to explore new opportunities to cooperate with Saab, such as in new energy vehicles."

He said Beijing Autos' sales are expected to pass 1.2 million vehicles this year.

Analysts have said the Saab acquisition will enable it to build a passenger car to call its own, but the company still has to build up its own reputation and product line.

Beijing Autos, founded as Beijing Auto Works in 1958, was the first Chinese car maker to team up with a foreign partner, setting up its Beijing Jeep Corp. joint venture with American Motors in 1983.

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Spyker in 11th-hour offer to buy Saab from GM - Times Online

Posted: 20 Dec 2009 01:54 PM PST

Spyker, the Netherlands sportscar maker, has renewed its offer for Saab, giving the Swedish carmaker the prospect of an 11th-hour reprieve.

General Motors announced on Friday that it would close Saab for good, consigning the 60-year-old brand to automotive history, after talks to sell to Spyker collapsed.

However, in a spectacular act of brinkmanship, Victor Muller, Spyker's chief executive, issued a new offer on Sunday, giving GM until 5pm today to accept.

"We are returning to the table with a renewed offer that addresses every known issue brought to light during the initial negotiations, and that has the full backing of the Saab management," Mr Muller said.

"We have asked GM and all other involved parties to seriously consider this offer. Some 1,500,000 Saabs are on the road today and their proud owners would no doubt welcome the survival of this phenomenal brand."

Spyker, which is listed on the Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam, would reveal no more details of its new offer other than that it eliminated the need for a loan from the European Investment Bank by the year end.

GM said on Friday that the failure to secure the loan had been one of the obstacles to concluding a deal.

Spyker, which is based in Zeewolde, in the Netherlands, has been producing hand-built sports cars, retailing for about £170,000 since 2000. It sells between 30 and 60 cars a year and employs about 130 people. It briefly entered the world of Formula One racing before selling on the team, which became Force India.

It announced in November that it would be moving its assembly facilities and engineering resources from the Netherlands to Coventry, in the Midlands, where the chassis and body panels for its cars are made.

A spokesman for GM said that the company had received "several inquiries about purchasing various bits of Saab's assets" since its announcement on Friday, but he would not comment on Spyker's renewed offer.

"We will evaluate each inquiry. We will not comment further until these evaluations have been completed," he said.

GM, which took a 50 per cent stake in Saab in 1990 and bought the company outright in 2000, has been trying to sell the Swedish company since February as part of its effort to become a leaner organisation and offload loss-making businesses.

As part of its European reorganisation, it has announced many job cuts in Germany, although it has indicated that it will retain most of Vauxhall's 4,500 workers in Britain.

Saab directly employs 3,000 to 4,000 people in Sweden, but Swedish unions fear that closure could bring the jobs toll to 15,000, if losses in the supply chain and related activities were included. About 1,600 people work at Saab's 80 UK dealerships and 80 people work at its British headquarters.

GM came close to selling Saab to Koenigsegg, another maker of sports-cars, but the Swedish company withdrew from the talks last month. GM last week sold some of the technology and production equipment for Saab's 9-5 and 9-3 models to Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Corporation, of China. On Friday, Beijing Automotive said that it wanted to explore further co-operation with Saab on projects such as "new energy vehicles".

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Automotive products lead the way as wholesale sales edge up in October ... - Stockhouse

Posted: 18 Dec 2009 06:54 AM PST

OTTAWA - Wholesale sales in current dollars edged up 0.3 per cent to $41.1 billion in October, the fourth increase in five months.

Statistics Canada reports sales by volume were up 0.4 per cent. The agency attributed the sales increase mainly to the automotive products and machinery and electronic equipment sectors, where growth offset weak sales in food, beverages and tobacco products.

Overall, five of the seven wholesale trade sectors posted stronger sales.

Automotive product sales climbed 1.5 per cent to $6.6 billion after falling in August and September.

StatsCan says the upturn was due to a 2.6 per cent rise the motor vehicles trade group, fuelled by stronger demand for passenger cars in Canada and the United States.

The New Motor Vehicle Sales Survey reports passenger car sales in Canada were up 5.3 per cent over September, while Canadian exports of passenger cars rose 4.7.

The machinery and electronic equipment sector rose 1.1 per cent in October, largely due to a 4.1 per cent hike in sales for wholesalers of computers and other electronic equipment.

The only declines were in the food, beverage and tobacco products sector, down 1.8 per cent, and the "other products" sector, down 0.2.

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