Swedish Automobile, the company which owns troubled automaker Saab, has said it has ended a 245 million euro investment deal with Chinese companies Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile and Pang Da Automobile, following their offer to buy Saab instead of committing to the original deal to invest in its parent company. according to reports.
Youngman and Pang Da had in July signed a non-binding MoU to take a combined 53.9% stake in Swedish Automobile, but now say circumstances have changed, and they want to purchase shares in Saab.
Swedish Automobile’s CEO Victor Muller said last week that the offer was unacceptable, stating that it would trigger every conceivable change of control clause and that would possibly mean the end of Saab, the reports added. He did not disclose the value of the offer.
The termination of the agreements came after Pang Da and Youngman failed to confirm their commitment to the equity investments and to a second deal over bridge funding, though Swedish Automobile added that discussions between the parties were still ongoing.
Swedish Automobile had at the end of September agreed to sell its Spyker Cars operation to American private equity firm North Street Capital, for US$44 million. North Street’s managing partner Alex Mascioli said last Friday that North Street had the capacity to take over Saab should it wish to do, adding that the brand was an undervalued asset that would survive. “I’m willing to do what I can with my resources for Saab,” he was quoted as saying.
By the looks of it, SA’s future remains well in the air at the moment. The company has been struggling for months in its bid to pay suppliers and employees and resume production at Trollhattan.
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what if it is VW that offer to buy they share?
will they take the same stand?
good question.
consider that VW has Skoda, SEAT, Audi, Bugatti, Bentley and even Lamborghini under its belt but why VW didn’t consider taking over SAAB or Volvo?
is it because of Swedish pride, similar like our Proton, which just won’t [insert your preferred word/comment here] off?
could be because saab will conflict with audi. both are positioned towards the same target customer. below audi, vw has its own cars and for a sporty brand, vw already has seat (whether or not it achieves that objective remains to be seen) and above audi, they have … the super brands. point is, there is really no need for vw to take saab or volvo as it is just not possible to position those brands lower than skoda.
i do agree about swedish pride though.
a reasonable explanation….talk about brand overload!