Handful of bids

Yesterday was the deadline to place bids on the Saab bankruptcy estate for those who want the entire estate. According to TTELA, the deadline was set at the end of the work day, i.e. at 17:00. A handful of bids were received by the deadline.

Reports say that one or more of the parties may have raised their bid as the deadline approached. According to bankruptcy administrators Hans L. Bergqvist, the administration hopes to get more than the SEK 3.6 billion, which the assets of the estate are valued to.

"That's the break up value," Bergqvist told Swedish news agency TT.

A report from Swedish Radio suggests that both Chinese Youngman and Indian Mahindra have placed bids. In addition, a Japanese-Chinese consortium has been mentioned as well as a Swedish consortium. Earlier in the process, even an undisclosed "European car maker" was mentioned as one of the interested parties.

To Swedish news agency TT, administrator Bergqvist could confirm that they had received a handful of bids.

"No one has called it quits today. The interested parties who have been following us lately are still part of the process," Bergvist said.

And the bids are already being evalutated. "We are evaluating them now."

If one of these bids is accepted and the bidder lives up to its plans, Trollhättan will again manufacture cars.

"They all want to build cars and they all want to build on the Saab cars in some form," said Bergqvist.

"These stakeholders have premises to do what Saab wanted to do. They see opportunities in taking advantage of the value in Saab."

According to Bergqvist, the production of the current Saab 9-3 can basically be continued, but the other Saab models will need an approval from General Motors which owns the technology.

The goal of the administrators is to have a deal done by summer.

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For me this sounds like very good news. Maybe the best news is that the administrators hope to get more than SEK 3.6 billion for the estate. Any company who can raise at least SEK 3.6 billion must be a company with good connections in the world of finance. And that will hopefully ensure that we will not see another owner like Spyker, always on the hunt after money to live another month.