In the right corner weighing in at SEK 4 billion, from China... Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile!
In the left corner weighing in at SEK 1.5 billion, National Electric Vehicle Sweden!
Let's get ready to rumble!
Today is the first day of June and we still have no word on a deal to sell the Saab bankruptcy estate. Earlier this week it looked like the electric car consortium, through its newly registered Swedish company National Electric Vehicle Sweden, would be the new owner of Saab. Reports say that NEVS is still the favorite, but the negotiations seem to have run into some challenges.
One challenge could be the price NEVS is offering. Reports say that it could be as little as SEK 1.5 billion. The offer does however not include Saab Automobile Parts. Offering a great deal more and wanting to buy also Saab Parts is Youngman. Their offer is said to be SEK 4 billion. The administrators main task is to raise as much money as possible so that the bankruptcy estate can pay its creditors as much as possible. And so the administrators can not simply brush aside a SEK 4 billion bid from Youngman. But the bankruptcy administrators require cash payment when a deal is signed, and Youngman must prove that the money is available for immediate payment.
To make the job to reach a deal even more complex, Svenska Dagbladet today reports that a number of deals made by Saab's former parent company, Spyker Cars, on behalf of Saab, must be sorted out before a sale can be done. And that is why Victor Muller came to Sweden earlier this week.
But that's not all. According to Svenska Dagbladet, also Saab's former head of design, Jason Castriota, is said to have some interest in what's going on in Trollhättan now. When he took the job as head designer at Saab and designed the Saab 9-3 replacement, he made a deal with Saab that he would get royalty payments for every Saab 9-3 sold. And now this also has to be worked out before a sale of Saab can be done.
In other words, there seem to be enough challenging questions left to make the administrators workday hectic.
A blog fueled by enthusiasm about Saab, the greatest car company between the North and the South Pole. And their cars, which probably is the only cars that would start on a cold and crispy South Pole morning.
