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.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Little bit of everything

Here is a wrap up of Saab related news the last two days.

Turkish investment company Brighwell Holdings with spokesman Zamier Ahmed says to Swedish Radio P4 Väst that they believe in a positive outcome concerning the talks they say they are conducting with the Saab bankruptcy administrators.

"We are in close contact with the bankruptcy administrators and we hope to meet them very soon. We are very optimistic, because we are intested in all of Saab and not just smaller parts of the company," Zamier Ahmed said to P4 Väst.

According to Ahmed, Brightwell can act quickly, but he sees some challenges concerning how quick the administrators can do their job and how much time it will take until Brightwell is satisfied with the technical, legal and financial parts of a deal.

"If we are satisfied, we are in a position to act quickly."

On Monday this weeek the administrators requested the District Court of Vänersborg to appoint a third administrator, Kent Hägglund who is expert on legal issues regarding brand names. Yesterday the Swedish Enforcement Authority, which is the supervising authority of bankruptcies, said it had no objections to Hägglund becoming a third administrator. It is up to the court to decide whether he becomes administrator or not.


Okey, so over to other Saab stuff.

BBC reports that yesterday there was a fire at Bond Street Saab of Leicester. Several cars have been damaged. The fire seems to have started in the workshop and then filled the showroom with smoke.


It is always sad to see damaged Saabs...


Over to something more positive.

Swedish rally and rallycross legend and Saab legend Per Eklund has teamed up with 2011 MSA British RallyCross Vice-Champion Andy Scott. They have announced an exciting new racing partnership to mount their USA assault on the 2012 Global RallyCross Championship.

The Global RallyCross Championship is a new sport which has attracted such motorsport personalities as Ken Block and Marcus Grönholm.

The Scott-Eklund team will enter the Unlimited class for a seven-round series, two of which will be held at the world-famous Summer X Games. They will enter with two four wheel drive Saab 9-3s, which will feature a two-litre turbo engine built by Trollspeed, transmission supplied by Sellholm and Öhlins suspension. A real Swedish Saab that is.


And finally, we have gotten reports that Saab legend Jan Åke Jonsson has gotten a new job. Yesterday it was announced that he will be Chairman of the board of the holding company Polstiernan Industri AB. The Polstiernan Industri group work with steel and aluminium products.

It's good to see Jan Åke back out in the business world. He certainly must have lots to offer.


And I almost forgot, here is the new Saab 9-18 out on the road doing a test drive: