Ssangyong C200 Concept
Not all hope is lost for SUV-focused Korean brand Ssangyong, whose future was in limbo thus far, having being ‘abandoned’ by its owner SAIC and such. It went into bankruptcy protection in February. It would be a shame for them to go down right now, having produced a rather interesting looking compact SUV concept recently.
The South Korean courts today finally approved Ssangyong’s revival plans – a 3 year program designed to increase competitiveness, return to profitability and triple revenues over their financial results this year. The courts said the revival plan proved to be more worthwhile than a liquidation, and now Ssangyong can finally seek new investments and financing to carry out this new revival plan.
“With supporters outnumbering opponents, we decided top give the green light to the plan to protect the interests of the majority. We also took into consideration the possible negative impact on the society and subcontractors if the self-rescue plan was rejected,” said Judge Ko Young-han. SsangYong had secured a majority number of votes for the plan from shareholders, bondholders and domestic creditors.
The plan includes a write-off of 80 per cent of the shares held by SAIC which will reduce its stake from 51 per cent to 11.2 per cent, and a conversion of 393 billion won of debt into new shares. Other shareholders will see their holdings written down at 3-to-1 initially, with a further write-down for all shareholders in January.
Don’t underestimate the Koreans – if Ssangyong can pull off the same amazing trick that Hyundai-Kia have done with both their brands, we’ll may soon be amazed at model after model churned out by a new “Korean Land Rover”.
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
FIRST!!!!
Nice looking car for a Korean
a lot of the murano influence in the design
at 1st glance, i thought its a Forte SUV…
Finally, a rescue plan for Ssanyong. Rexton and other Ssanyong makes' owners have been left in limbo since the brand went down under; with CS here putting on hold all plans for grooming the brand. From a luxurious brand, we are suddenly left with a pariah brand with nilch resale value. Imagine buying a sub-RM1xx k vehicle that depreciated to almost 1/3 its value in a year. And the Rexton is such a reliable and beautiful vehicle that would have hold its value so much better had none of this negative impact happened!
CONGRATS
Aren't this looks like Acura MDX?!
2nd?
Now who said only Malaysia protecting their car company?
Headlight design, especially the LEDS taken right off the Audi's….
hmmm, korean murano.
anyway, the rexton here really depreciated like shit when the news came out.
on top of the fact that it was korean, it was also going bankrupt.
this might help restore some of that value back.
anyone agree the head lamps resemble audi A8..
tail lights like the one in the current honda city,right.
"The plan includes a write-off of 80 per cent of the shares held by SAIC which will reduce its stake from 51 per cent to 11.2 per cent, and a conversion of 393 billion won of debt into new shares."
That's a perfect partner for Proton! Go Ssangyong-Proton, Go!
You have to thank Italdesign Giugiaro for the beautiful C200 concept above. Really glad to see Ssangyong saved, yes they may design ugly cars such as the Rodius/Starvic but they know they producing the car nobody wants and know what to do to turn themselves around from this mess. They just need to find the right investor with experience, SAIC wasn't right for them.
nice concept, hope it wont change much when its ready for production, how i wish proton could do good cars wit good designs, barulah ada kebanggaan bila drive keta malaysia
In this Yahoo news, it says their debt is 1.2 trillion won, or about USD $1billion.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091217/ap_on_bi_ge/a…
That made the 'bailout' proton gave to MV agusta seems like peanuts… another thing, SUVs are soooo last decade. It doesn't matter how good it looks. It's just so politically wrong.
Add more driving dynamic, stay with merc engine and underpinnings, scrap wierd design, sell a proper pickup truck like ranger etc, sell pickup truck based SUV, its cheaper. Then u will get a bigger piece of cake
Still put confidence on Hyundai/Kia, not Kia/Hyundai ya. Certainly not Ssangyong until the China is out; no technology investor.
Question is, for an all SUV marque, don't u think that even if they can pull off a Hyundai/Kia revival, its target demographic is fast evaporating?
Nice concept.
Hopes to get one real model for test drive here soon.
Just dissolve SsangYong and sell the right for this SUV to proton. Finish.