Daily Auto News Last-Minute Bid Comes in for Saab
Daily Auto News
Saab is becoming the Michael Corleone of the automotive industry: Just when we thought it was out, they pull it back in.
Automotive News reports that after announcing Saab would be shut down in the absence of an acceptable buyer, GM “said it would evaluate several expressions of interest for Saab, including a new fast-track bid from Spyker Cars NV.”
The offer from Spyker addresses 11 points of concern that GM had with the company’s original bid. Saab’s stay of execution might be brief, however. Spyker’s newest offer expires at five p.m. EST.
Reuters says, “The partly Russian-owned Spyker said on Sunday it had lodged a renewed fast-track offer to buy Saab from GM just two days after last-ditch talks with GM over a rescue of the loss-making Swedish manufacturer collapsed.”
But while Spyker’s share prices spiked this morning with news of the bid, others are more cautious. The Associated Press reports, “Swedish government officials and unions held crisis talks on Saab’s fate on Monday as analysts expressed doubts about a renewed bid by Dutch sportscar maker Spyker for GM’s loss-making unit Saab.”
Others are also resigned to the likely fate of the quirky Swedish cars with clamshell hoods. The New York Times says, “Swedish leaders have accepted the parent company’s decision, and are trying to live with a death foretold.” The Times reports that Fredrik Reinfeldt, Sweden’s Prime Minister, told Swedish radio that the government would not be bailing Saab out, though it was prepared to help finance super car maker Koenigseggin its bid to buy the brand. Of that bid, Reinfeldt said, “We wanted so much for it to go well . . . we wanted to talk about the Saab cars we rode in, but the truth — and one is almost not allowed to say it — was that the company was bleeding.”
We’ll keep you posted on whether Saab finally bleeds out today.
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