IMPORTANT NEWS: National Electric Vehicle Sweden has agreed to buy the assets of Saab Automobile and the sale is expected to be finalized during the summer.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A Chinese lead on long-term financing?

According to todays Dagens Industri, Saab is in negotiations with Chinese companies to solve the long-term financing of Saab:
- Saab is working intensely on several parallel tracks, and the amounts in question are several billion Swedish kronor. Among other things, there are negotiations with two Chinese car companies about some type of long-term ownership cooperation. There is a great value in the Saab brand, says a source according to DI.
According to the newspaper, BAIC's CEO has in several interviews shown interest in Saab. And even sale of parts of Saab's new Phoenix platform is mentioned as a possible solution.

Earlier this month a Dagens Industri report also mentioned that Saab was looking to China. Here's what I wrote 6 April:

"Saab also works to raise money by selling licenses and cooperation on the new platform Phoenix. Talks have been held with stakeholders including Chinese, says the company."

I have also reported earlier that TTELA has written that Saab is looking to China to bring in capital, and today TTELA writes the following about the China lead:
The background for the supposed Chinese lead was a number of interacting factors: Among other things, Muller expressed that it would be interesting to manufacture the next 9-3 in China on a fair a few weeks ago. The fact that in Geneva he said that Saab could raise funding to use on the next-generation car models from the Phoenix-architecture, if they shared the architecture with external partners. And the fact that Saab managers have visited China for business that do not seem to be linked to the agreement to establish a distribution network with Chinese CATC.
So there is definitely something going on with Saab and China!