Today is the (unconfirmed) date set by the Saab bankruptcy administrators for the final bids on Saab. We should have some very interesting weeks coming. Which suitor will be chosen as preferred bidder? Which suitor(s) will give up on Saab?
One suitor has already dropped out. Turkish Brightwell Holdings dropped out at the end of February. Reason being General Motors reluctance to license technology to any new owner of Saab.
Two other suitors we know have a serious interest in Saab, are Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile and Indian Mahindra & Mahindra. Youngman has been in the race to acquire Saab for almost a year now. First the company were looking to become partner and part owner of Saab, later sole owner. The company has been reported to have made a SEK 2 billion opening bid on Saab. A bid the Chinese were open to increase if needed. In addition, they are ready to invest SEK 12 billion in the development of new Saab models based on the Phoenix platform.
So far we have gotten no confirmation that Mahindra has made a bid. We just know that they have shown an interest. But according to TTELA and SR P4 Väst, the Indians have also placed a bid. Apart from that, we know very little about Mahindra's ambitions for Saab. But it is safe to assume that they are interested in the Phoenix platform.
One week ago we also got the reports that a Japanese-Chinese consortium has placed a bid on Saab. The reports say that this consortium plans to start producing electric cars and batteries in Trollhättan. According to just-auto, the Japanese-Chinese consortium plan initially to use the 9-3 as the base for an electric car. But the cars will not be branded as Saabs.
Sounds like a bad business case, doesn't it? But what makes it much more believabe and scary is that the Swedish government is said to be "heavily involved" in the discussions to sell Saab to this consortium. Several meetings are said to been held between the consortium, the Japanese government and the Swedish government.
So who will end up as new owner(s) of Saab?
According to a report in TTELA today, Indian Mahindra and the Japanese-Chinese consortium are the favorites. As always, these claims are based on unnamed sources and should be taken with a pinch of salt. But I know which of these two parties I want for new owner of Saab. Mahindra!
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.
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Tata Motors denies Saab bid
Last night Indian newspaper The Indian Express reported that Tata Motors of Indian had placed a $350 million bid on Saab. Now Tata denies the bid.
"We have not bid for Saab," said Tata Motors' Chairman of the board Ratan Tata to the Wall Street Journal.
Chairman Ratan Tata is currently at the Geneva Motor show where Wall Street Journal asked him about the alleged Tata bid.
"But another Indian company, Mahindra has," Ratan Tata continued.
According to Tata's head of Corporate Communications, Debasis Ray, Tata has not even been at Saab in Trollhättan snooping around. And they are not interested in additional brands.
So it would seem that Indian newspaper The Indian Express has mixed up the two Indian companies when it reported about the bid on Saab.
"We have not bid for Saab," said Tata Motors' Chairman of the board Ratan Tata to the Wall Street Journal.
Chairman Ratan Tata is currently at the Geneva Motor show where Wall Street Journal asked him about the alleged Tata bid.
"But another Indian company, Mahindra has," Ratan Tata continued.
According to Tata's head of Corporate Communications, Debasis Ray, Tata has not even been at Saab in Trollhättan snooping around. And they are not interested in additional brands.
So it would seem that Indian newspaper The Indian Express has mixed up the two Indian companies when it reported about the bid on Saab.
Also Indian Tata bids for Saab
According to Indian newspaper The Indian Express, India's largest vehicle manufacturer Tata Motors has placed a bid of around $350 million (SEK 2.3 billion) on the Saab bankruptcy estate.
Tata is of course the owner of the English brands Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) and has enjoyed much success with its earlier acquisition of foreign car brands.
The Indian Express reports that it is understood that Tata's global acquisition team has been in negotiations with the Saab bankruptcy administrators and private equity players for a prospective acquisition.
When contacted, Tata would not comment on the information:
"We do not comment on speculation," a Tata spokesperson said.
Tata will however have to compete with at least two other bidder, and one of the bidders should be well known to Tata. Last week it was reported that Tata competitior in Indian, vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra, had placed a bid on Saab. In addition also Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile has confirmed placing a bid.
Tata is of course the owner of the English brands Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) and has enjoyed much success with its earlier acquisition of foreign car brands.
The Indian Express reports that it is understood that Tata's global acquisition team has been in negotiations with the Saab bankruptcy administrators and private equity players for a prospective acquisition.
When contacted, Tata would not comment on the information:
"We do not comment on speculation," a Tata spokesperson said.
Tata will however have to compete with at least two other bidder, and one of the bidders should be well known to Tata. Last week it was reported that Tata competitior in Indian, vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra, had placed a bid on Saab. In addition also Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile has confirmed placing a bid.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Indian Mahindra & Mahindra has placed bid on Saab
Local Trollhättan newspaper TTELA reports that Indian Mahindra & Mahindra group is one of the bidders on the bankruptcy estate of Saab Automobile. Also Swedish Radio P4 Väst reports that their sources confirm a bid from Mahindra.
On Tuesday the bankruptcy administrators said that they have received several interesting bids on Saab. Due to this, the administrators expressed optimism about continued operations at Saab in Trollhättan. All bids are however indicative, which means that they are non-binding bids that are negotable.
At the moment it is unclear if the bid from Mahindra is on Saab as an entire entity or only for parts of Saab. But according to the reports, the bid from Mahindra does not depend on continued technology lincenses from General Motors. Mahindra is however interested in acquiring the Saab brand name, and reports indicate that Mahindra has shown interest in continued production of the current Saab 9-3 and of course the planned 9-3 replacement and other future models.
On Tuesday the bankruptcy administrators said that they have received several interesting bids on Saab. Due to this, the administrators expressed optimism about continued operations at Saab in Trollhättan. All bids are however indicative, which means that they are non-binding bids that are negotable.
At the moment it is unclear if the bid from Mahindra is on Saab as an entire entity or only for parts of Saab. But according to the reports, the bid from Mahindra does not depend on continued technology lincenses from General Motors. Mahindra is however interested in acquiring the Saab brand name, and reports indicate that Mahindra has shown interest in continued production of the current Saab 9-3 and of course the planned 9-3 replacement and other future models.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Mahindra executive talks about Saab
Pawan Goenka, President of the Automotive and Farm Equipment sectors of the Mahindra & Mahindra Group, has talked to CNBC TV18 about the thought of acquiring Saab.
I think it's safe to assume that M&M is still very much interested in Saab. And from the news report it looks like there has even been a meeting with the Heavy industry Minister of India regarding Saab.
Here's what CNBC TV18 writes about the news piece:
I think it's safe to assume that M&M is still very much interested in Saab. And from the news report it looks like there has even been a meeting with the Heavy industry Minister of India regarding Saab.
Here's what CNBC TV18 writes about the news piece:
Pawan Goenka, president of the automotive business at Mahindra & Mahindra tells CNBC-TV18 that they may be looking to acquire SAAB's assets because of the benefits that they can derive from it.
"SAAB can bring in some technologies that go into SUVs, it can bring in infrastructure for R&D and it also brings in the global distribution network, but we will see if this is sufficient for us to be interested," he said to Swati Khandwlwal Jain.
"The product range of SAAB is not like a regular Sedan, which you have and they are more off road vehicles though they are not SUVs," he added.
Mahindra's ambitions
Last weekend there were Swedish news reports claiming that Indian vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra had decided to withdraw from going after the Saab bankruptcy estate. Reason being General Motors relunctance to license its technology to any buyer of Saab. Then yesterday the bankruptcy administrator Anne-Marie Pouteaux told the press that non of the parties which has shown interest in Saab has withdrawn as of yet.
From reports in Indian media and also from a statement from the CEO of Brightwell, the Turkish competitor for the estate, we have learned that Mahindra signed a confidentiality agreement prior to January 22nd. An agreement which had to be signed in order to be able to place a bid. But just how serious is Mahindra about Saab?
Swedish Radio P4 Väst yesterday wrote that Mahindra was after Saab already back in 2009 when Saab's former owner General Motors put the company up for sale. Back then Mahindra also signed a confidentiality agreement and even had lengthy negotiations with GM. But in the end Mahindra decided, for unknown reasons, to not make a bid.
But now Mahindra is back. But what does Mahindra want? For anyone asking that question I would recommend reading an article in yesterday's edition of Forbes India.
From the Forbes India article it looks that Mahindra is in the process of building up their development capability, and they are doing it by acquiring companies and technology:
While Mahindra at the moment has a limited range of vehicle, mostly SUV's and some old car technology bought from Renault - the Verito, their ambitions are far bigger:
So Mahindra reminds us of Chinese Youngman. A company building vehicles using aging technology from other companies, in desperate search of new technology and knowhow in order to fullfill their ambitions of becoming an important player in the future automotive market in their home country and maybe even in the world.
The big questions for the Saab fans is what are their ambitions for Saab? Is it to make Saab a successful brand based in Sweden (like Tata has done with JLR), or just to get the technology?
From reports in Indian media and also from a statement from the CEO of Brightwell, the Turkish competitor for the estate, we have learned that Mahindra signed a confidentiality agreement prior to January 22nd. An agreement which had to be signed in order to be able to place a bid. But just how serious is Mahindra about Saab?
Swedish Radio P4 Väst yesterday wrote that Mahindra was after Saab already back in 2009 when Saab's former owner General Motors put the company up for sale. Back then Mahindra also signed a confidentiality agreement and even had lengthy negotiations with GM. But in the end Mahindra decided, for unknown reasons, to not make a bid.
But now Mahindra is back. But what does Mahindra want? For anyone asking that question I would recommend reading an article in yesterday's edition of Forbes India.
From the Forbes India article it looks that Mahindra is in the process of building up their development capability, and they are doing it by acquiring companies and technology:
A senior automotive consultant puts it aptly. "They knew they are not in a great position when it comes to R&D. So for the last 4-5 years the idea has been just to invest in it. The technical center in Chennai, the 600 odd engineering set up at Ssangyong, the Italian design firm buyout or the projects they do with others like Ford, Renault or Navistar... M&M is building a huge organization capable of doing development work."
While Mahindra at the moment has a limited range of vehicle, mostly SUV's and some old car technology bought from Renault - the Verito, their ambitions are far bigger:
"With the little changes they have done, Verito is doing well but it is not going to last forever. They need a newer generation of platform... who knows even shorten the platform. But they have no skill in this area. I think Saab can help them there," says Deepesh. Fair point! I mean for $425 million, you get an established though niche brand, manufacturing facility in Europe and Saab's technical center. However much M&M will try and convince you that it wants to be the utility vehicles specialist, I think the company’s ambition is far bigger. That is to become a full line automobile player. The question is can Saab help M&M get there?
So Mahindra reminds us of Chinese Youngman. A company building vehicles using aging technology from other companies, in desperate search of new technology and knowhow in order to fullfill their ambitions of becoming an important player in the future automotive market in their home country and maybe even in the world.
The big questions for the Saab fans is what are their ambitions for Saab? Is it to make Saab a successful brand based in Sweden (like Tata has done with JLR), or just to get the technology?
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Mahindra dropping out of race?
According to Swedish business news Dagens Industri, Indian vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra might drop out of the race to buy the bankruptcy estate of Saab Automobile.
The reason that Mahindra now is reported to hesitate on making a bid is General Motors reluctance to license technology to Saab.
"It will be difficult for us and other car companies to take over Saab if GM is not cooperating," said an unnamed person from Mahindra to Dagens Industri.
Mahindra was hoping to secure a technology agreement from GM, but has now come to realize that GM has no intention of seeing any future Saab cars being built.
So far the only known bid has been placed by Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile. This was an indicative offer, which is only a non-binding starting bid. Now Youngman has left Sweden and traveled back to China, but according to their spokesman in Sweden, Johan Nylén, they will return soon. Nylén would not comment on where in the process of acquiring Saab the company is.
"We can not comment on that, but we are proceeding forward," Nylén told TTELA.
Turkish Brightwell Holdings NV, which has been the party that has been most vocal in the media, yesterday told TTELA that it will place a bid on Saab.
"We will place a bid, but we want to do it the right way. It requires a lot of analysis. Saab is a huge company," Zamier Ahmed of Brightwell told TTELA.
The reason that Mahindra now is reported to hesitate on making a bid is General Motors reluctance to license technology to Saab.
"It will be difficult for us and other car companies to take over Saab if GM is not cooperating," said an unnamed person from Mahindra to Dagens Industri.
Mahindra was hoping to secure a technology agreement from GM, but has now come to realize that GM has no intention of seeing any future Saab cars being built.
So far the only known bid has been placed by Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile. This was an indicative offer, which is only a non-binding starting bid. Now Youngman has left Sweden and traveled back to China, but according to their spokesman in Sweden, Johan Nylén, they will return soon. Nylén would not comment on where in the process of acquiring Saab the company is.
"We can not comment on that, but we are proceeding forward," Nylén told TTELA.
Turkish Brightwell Holdings NV, which has been the party that has been most vocal in the media, yesterday told TTELA that it will place a bid on Saab.
"We will place a bid, but we want to do it the right way. It requires a lot of analysis. Saab is a huge company," Zamier Ahmed of Brightwell told TTELA.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Mahindra placed bid yesterday, Swedish-Japanese bid shortly?
Swedish business news Dagens Industri reports that Indian Mahindra & Mahindra finally placed a bid on the Saab bankruptcy estate Monday. But they are not the only one with a keen interest on the Saab leftovers. Now even a Swedish and Japanese co-operation wants the bankruptcy estate.
According to The Times Of India Mahindra had signed a confidentiality agreement prior to Monday and was believed to be in the process of finalizing its bid. But as mentioned, now Dagens Industri says that the company placed a bid on large parts of the bankruptcy estate yesterday.
Competitor for acquiring Saab, Chinese Youngman, is reported to still be present in Sweden with its top management. Youngman supposedly already placed its bid on January 27th. But it seems clear that this bid now needs to be revised should Youngman have any hope of acquiring Saab.
The Swedish-Japanese co-operation stems from the electric car group which includes local Trollhättan development foundation Innovatum, state owned Fouriertransform, consultancy company Semcon and Volvo Cars. In addition there are one or more investors. This group now wants to cooperate with Japanese battery manufacturer Panasonic to develop and manufacture electric cars. It is believed that this group only wants parts of the bankruptcy estate.
The initiative is said to have the support of the Swedish government and the Ministry of Enterprises. Large government grants could be available.
"The support can be through direct contributions to the development work, but also through substantial investments from the state-owned venture capital company, Fouriertransform," a source said to Dagens Industri.
According to Swedish Radio P4 Väst, the bid from the Swedish-Japanese group hasalready been made. P4 Väst have now been in contact with Tore Helmersson, who is CEO of Innovatum, and he denies that a bid has been made. But he did confirm that there are discussions being held concerning manufacturing of electric cars in Trollhättan.
Head of communications at Volvo Cars, Per-Åke Fröberg, denies to Svenska Dagbladet that Volvo is part of a electric car group interested in parts of Saab.
"No, that is incorrect information. We're not involved in something like that. We are however interested in some of the test equipment and a few other things if the administrators decides to sell the estate in parts," Per-Åke Fröberg told SvD.
According to The Times Of India Mahindra had signed a confidentiality agreement prior to Monday and was believed to be in the process of finalizing its bid. But as mentioned, now Dagens Industri says that the company placed a bid on large parts of the bankruptcy estate yesterday.
Competitor for acquiring Saab, Chinese Youngman, is reported to still be present in Sweden with its top management. Youngman supposedly already placed its bid on January 27th. But it seems clear that this bid now needs to be revised should Youngman have any hope of acquiring Saab.
The Swedish-Japanese co-operation stems from the electric car group which includes local Trollhättan development foundation Innovatum, state owned Fouriertransform, consultancy company Semcon
The initiative is said to have the support of the Swedish government and the Ministry of Enterprises. Large government grants could be available.
"The support can be through direct contributions to the development work, but also through substantial investments from the state-owned venture capital company, Fouriertransform," a source said to Dagens Industri.
According to Swedish Radio P4 Väst, the bid from the Swedish-Japanese group has
Head of communications at Volvo Cars, Per-Åke Fröberg, denies to Svenska Dagbladet that Volvo is part of a electric car group interested in parts of Saab.
"No, that is incorrect information. We're not involved in something like that. We are however interested in some of the test equipment and a few other things if the administrators decides to sell the estate in parts," Per-Åke Fröberg told SvD.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Today's Saab bankruptcy news in short
Here's a short summary of the latest Saab news concerning the bankruptcy.
Sweden's National Debt Office (NDO), which last week paid back Saab's EUR 217 million loan to the European Investment Bank and by doing so took one big step towards ownership over the company Saab Automobile Parts AB which acted as security for the loan, is now taking the necessary steps to take over two available board positions in the company.
Saab Automobile Parts, on its part, is reported to be in the process of hiring approx. 50 former Saab workers.
Saab Automobile Parts will survive no matter what happens with the bankrtupcy estate after the Saab bankruptcy. At the time being still under the wings of the bankruptcy administrators, but if not a credible buyer of the entire Saab operations emerge, the NDO will take over the company and run it or sell it.
The bankruptcy administrators today said that 4-5 parties have shown interest in acquiring the entire Saab business and 5-10 are interested in parts of the business.
One of the parties which was rumered to be interested in the entire business is Indian Mahindra & Mahindra. Now IndianCarsBikes writes that Mahindra is said to be teaming up with an unnamed private-equity firm to place a bid of $200-300 million for only parts of the Saab business. I am however a bit uncertain about the credibility of this report due to other factual errors in the report.
Saab's North American operations, Saab Cars North America (SCNA), is trying to survive the bankruptcy in the parent company and find a new life as a Saab spare parts supplier. But now 40 Saab dealers are reported to be filing for involuntary bankruptcy in SCNA, which could mean that the company has reached the end of the line.
Sweden's National Debt Office (NDO), which last week paid back Saab's EUR 217 million loan to the European Investment Bank and by doing so took one big step towards ownership over the company Saab Automobile Parts AB which acted as security for the loan, is now taking the necessary steps to take over two available board positions in the company.
Saab Automobile Parts, on its part, is reported to be in the process of hiring approx. 50 former Saab workers.
Saab Automobile Parts will survive no matter what happens with the bankrtupcy estate after the Saab bankruptcy. At the time being still under the wings of the bankruptcy administrators, but if not a credible buyer of the entire Saab operations emerge, the NDO will take over the company and run it or sell it.
The bankruptcy administrators today said that 4-5 parties have shown interest in acquiring the entire Saab business and 5-10 are interested in parts of the business.
One of the parties which was rumered to be interested in the entire business is Indian Mahindra & Mahindra. Now IndianCarsBikes writes that Mahindra is said to be teaming up with an unnamed private-equity firm to place a bid of $200-300 million for only parts of the Saab business. I am however a bit uncertain about the credibility of this report due to other factual errors in the report.
Saab's North American operations, Saab Cars North America (SCNA), is trying to survive the bankruptcy in the parent company and find a new life as a Saab spare parts supplier. But now 40 Saab dealers are reported to be filing for involuntary bankruptcy in SCNA, which could mean that the company has reached the end of the line.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Mahindra & Mahindra of India interested in Saab
Yesterday we got reports that an Indian company had shown interest in Saab. Speculations have been going high and today Bloomberg reveals that the company is India's largest SUV manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
Bloomberg refers to two sources familiar with the situation when naming Mahindra. But the company itself would not confirm the interest.
Mahindra spokeswoman, Roma Balwani, declined to make a comment to Bloomberg, while CFO Bharat Doshi said that he was in a meeting and wasn't available to talk.
Pawan Goenka, president automotive of Mahindra & Mahindra , told The Telegraph India, "I would not like to comment on these reports."
According to Bloomberg's sources, Mahindra has so far not held discussions with the court appointed administrators of the Saab bankruptcy, but is in the process of making an appointment.
One of Bloomberg's sources also confirmed that at least one Turkish company is interested in Saab.
So now we have more or less confirmed interest from China, Turkey and India, which all are countries with ambitions to become big players on the global automotive market.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, which is part of the Mahindra Group, has 119,900 employees and is involved in many different industries like automotive, components, defense, energy, farm equipment and aerospace. This is a huge company!
Bloomberg refers to two sources familiar with the situation when naming Mahindra. But the company itself would not confirm the interest.
Mahindra spokeswoman, Roma Balwani, declined to make a comment to Bloomberg, while CFO Bharat Doshi said that he was in a meeting and wasn't available to talk.
Pawan Goenka, president automotive of Mahindra & Mahindra , told The Telegraph India, "I would not like to comment on these reports."
According to Bloomberg's sources, Mahindra has so far not held discussions with the court appointed administrators of the Saab bankruptcy, but is in the process of making an appointment.
One of Bloomberg's sources also confirmed that at least one Turkish company is interested in Saab.
So now we have more or less confirmed interest from China, Turkey and India, which all are countries with ambitions to become big players on the global automotive market.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, which is part of the Mahindra Group, has 119,900 employees and is involved in many different industries like automotive, components, defense, energy, farm equipment and aerospace. This is a huge company!
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