Turkish Brightwell Holdings out of the race for Saab

Turkish Brightwell Holdings, which has expressed interest in acquiring Saab has decided to call it quits. According to Zamier Ahmed of Brightwell, GM is not willing to cooperate and therefore Brightwell has withdrawn its bid for Saab.

"The bid has been withdrawn. We have been in contact with the administrators. Because of GM's attitude, we can not continue," said Ahmed to Dagens Industri.

Ahmed said that the negotiations with GM reached a deadlock on Monday.

"Everything was under control and we are awaiting final feedback from GM. They changed their mind in the last minute. Unfortunately, I must say I have never experienced such behavior from a company of that size."

It was the attempt to reach an agreement over the GM technology licenses used by Saab and the manufacturing of the Saab 9-4X at GM in Mexico which stranded.

According to Ahmed, GM did not say no to licensing technology, but at the same time GM did not give any definite answers.

"We have put a plan on the table to save Saab. GM has not only proven to be unwilling to cooperate. It is also my conclusion that GM wants to kill Saab," said Zamier Ahmed.

"Nothing has changed. We are not in discussions and have not been in discussions with anyone," said GM's spokesman James Cain to TTELA on Monday.

"We have received requests to open a dialogue from several third parties, but we have not opened discussions with anyone," Cain continued.

So one player out of the race. Anyone surprised? I am not...

We can hope that Brightwell's announcement is their attempt of saving face because they might know that they will not be selected by the administrators as preferred bidder for Saab.

The board members of Brightwell have been very vocal in the media with their continued claims to be in negotiations with GM and their naive optimism about reaching a deal. And now they blame GM, which is a bit foolish since GM has time and time again given a plain answer about Saab: We will not lincense technology and we do not negotiate with anyone.

GM killed Saab three years ago. It just took a little longer for Saab to die than they had anticipated.

At 9:00 CET today the administrators will hold their weekly press brief and maybe we can expect some news about Saab then.

Brightwell prepared to invest several hundred million euros in Saab

Yesterday Zamier Ahmed of Brightwell Holdings arrived in Sweden accompanied with Chairman of Brightwell, Alphan Manas. Today they will travel to Gothenburg and Trollhättan to meet their team of economists and engineers.

Zamier Ahmed of Brightwell Holdings

"I'm meeting my team who are on site and will get feedback from them, help them with the final valuation and meet other parties associated with Saab," Zamier Ahmed told Dagens Industri yesterday in Stockholm.

According to Ahmed, Brightwell has had a team of nine people on site in Sweden the past month. Their task has been to collect information and to assess the Saab assets.

"We have one engineering team and one financial team, both are reporting to me."

Also supporting Brightwell is Saab's former CEO, Chairman and major owner Victor Muller. In a text message to TT yesterday the Dutchman wrote the following:

"In my judgment, they have the best chance to restart Saab as an entire entity," Muller wrote.

One thing that cast some doubt over Brightwell's credibility is the question about their financial strength. Yesterday Dagens Industri wrote that Brightwell claims to be partly funding by oil interests in the Middle East. But at present very little information about Brightwell's funding is known.

And this begs the question if we want one more company which has limited funding and unknown backers buying Saab?

But according to Ahmed, money is no problem. Brightwell is ready to invest heavy in Saab.

"We're talking about several hundred million euros."

Brightwell also claims to have moral support from the Turkish state. But last year following the Saab bankruptcy when the interest from a Turkish company was made known, Turkey's Minister of Science, Technology and Industry asked Turkish companies to show great caution if considering buying Saab. He said that any Turkish company interested in Saab "should do a thorough profit and loss analysis" before acquiring Saab. I guess Brightwell's adding machines show big black profitable numbers now that they have the moral support of the Turkish state?

According to Ahmed the aim is unquestionably to place a bid on Saab. But the bid is still some days away from being submitted.

"Not during my stay here, but not too far away," Ahmed said.

"I think this can be a very successful business if it is managed proper and financially sound," said Ahmed who also said Saab has fantastic products and a brand with "a tremendous legacy".


To me this sounds too good to be true. It sounds too much like another Spyker-story. And that is a story I prefer not to experience again. But if Brightwell wins Saab, then I hope that I can be proven wrong and I will be more than happy to apologize for my skepticism.

Brightwell arriving in Sweden today

According to Dagens Industri, representatives of Turkish Brightwell Holdings are arriving in Sweden today. The goal is to make an offer on the entire Saab business.

"Our plan is to start production as soon as possible with as many models as possible," said Zamier Ahmed, board member of Brightwell Holdings, to Dagens Industri.

Ahmed is scheduled to arrive in Sweden this evening together with CEO of Brightwell Alphan Manas. Tomorrow they will travel to Gothenburg were they will meet an undisclosed law firm. Brightwell is reported to be trying to schedule meetings with both the bankruptcy administrators as well as with the Ministry of Enterprises.

Alphan Manas, Chairman of Brightwell Holdings NV

To help prepare the bid, Brightwell has, among others, gotten Saab's former CEO and Chairman Victor Muller on board.

"I know Victor Muller well and it is difficult to stop his enthusiasm for the brand. We get much help from him," said Zamier Ahmed.

Some who is not so enthusiastic about Brightwell are the suppliers of Saab according to Dagens Industri. And I guess you can put also me, the author of this blog, on the list of skeptics.

In response to all the skeptics in the automotive industry, Ahmed says that Brightwell has put together a car group of 10 individuals including "people from, for example, Ford and Land Rover." These people are currently working in Sweden to prepare "a detailed bid," Ahmed told Dagens Industri.

"It's easy to make mistakes and we want to avoid that," he said.


It will be interesting to see what kind of bid Brightwell will make, given all the noise Brightwell has made in the media and given the confidence they have shown regarding making a deal with GM for the continued production of the current Saab models.

Four to five parties interested in acquiring entire Saab

According to TT, four to five parties are interested in buying Saab in its entirety. TT cites Hans Bergqvist, who is one of the bankruptcy administrators.

"I can not comment on who we are negotiating with. But we are in a dialogue with four, five interested parties who we believe have a serious interest," Bergqvist told TT.

We known from earlier that Chinese vehicle manufacturer Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile is one of these parties. As reported on Friday, the management of Youngman is expected to Sweden tomorrow to present their bid to the administrators.

Turkish private-equity firm Brightwell Holdings has also made it clear that they will place a bid on Saab, probably next week also. But Brightwell has expressed concern about the Saab engineers finding new jobs. Yesterday Zamier Ahmed of Brightwell told just-auto that they will make a statement concerning the engineers of Saab shortly.

"At the end of the day, Saab will not be the entity we want it to be if we don't have skilled engineers for local production. We will make a statement with regards to that in the very near future [when] we have a better picture of the positioning for our proposal," Ahmed said and continued "The core of Saab is the people - without these core people we don't have a product. We will do everything we can to make sure we provide an intelligent and sustainable platform for former workers of Saab to work with us."

Also the administrators feel that time is of essence, but maybe for a slightly different reason:

"We have to hurry due to the economic situation we are in. To make it possible for someone to restart the activity again, we have to keep the factory in good shape, and that costs an incredible amount of money," administrator Hans Bergqvist told TT.

I addition to the aforementioned interested parties, vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra of India has also been said to be interested. In fact so interested that representatives from the company have been in Sweden and Trollhättan for several days now doing a due diligence on Saab. So M&M is also probably one of the four to five parties mentioned by Bergqvist.

The last one or two parties are anyone's guess. The administrators have said that they have also been in contact with Swedish parties and parties mixed of Swedish and foreign stakeholders. Early in the process Canadian Magna International, which is the world's third biggest automotive supplier, was also mentioned. My take on it is that Magna is unlikely since they said that they are happy to remain a supplier to the automotive industry.

Chinese arriving Monday to place bid, Turkish bid only days away

Swedish Radio P4 Väst reports that a large delegation from Chinese Youngman is expected to Sweden on Monday to present a bid on Saab. At the same time Turkish company Brightwell is reported to be only days away from also placing bid on Saab.

The Chinese delegation is expected to include the whole management of Youngman including Chairman of the board and founder of Youngman Mr. Pang Qingnian. The purpose of the visit is to place a bid on the entire Saab operating, a bid which is to presented to the Saab bankruptcy administrators on Monday.

But the Chinese will not be alone. Radio P4 Väst reports that also Mahindra & Mahindra of India has now spent several days in Sweden getting an overview of the Saab operations.

"It will be a thrilling fight between Youngman and Mahindra on who will finally buy the bankruptcy estate," a source said to Radio P4 Väst.

But not even the Chinese and the Indian suitors are alone. Also Turkish Brightwell Holdings is getting ready to place a bid on Saab.

According to Zamier Ahmed, who is board member of Brightwell Holdings, the Turkish private-equity firm is only days away from placing a bid.

"We are just a few days, maybe a week away. This is due to certain final valuations ​​that must be done. This has been an enormous task, given Saab's size, assets and all the people involved," said Zamier Ahmed to di.se.

We're now moving rather quickly towards a decision, which means that the administrators eventually will ask for bids from the parties, whoever they are, and make a decisions based on the bids," Ahmed said.

Brightwell has not given up on persuading GM to keep licensing the needed technology to Saab so that Saab can continue producing the new current Saab cars.

"If GM will continuing to licensing their technology, we can begin production within weeks. But if GM, in the worst case scenario do not want to go that route, it does not mean that we are not interested in Saab," said Zamier Ahmed.

Ahmed also said that Brightwell Holdings could still produce cars since the investment company has its own vehicle platform.

"Since we have our own platform, it is not over optimistic. It has been developed internally by one of the companies owned by Brightwell Holdings," said Zamier Ahmed without revealing any more details.

Ahmed also said that he this weekend will travel to Detroit, but he would not say if it is to meet GM.

Brightwell Holdings one step closer to buying Saab

Updated January 27 8:52 with info about Brightwell's electric car ambitions

Apologies for no updates yesterday and so far today. Not much has happened that has leaked to the media and the news that the museum was saved deserved to be the top story for a while.

Today we got the news that Turkish private-equity firm Brightwell Holdings and the bankruptcy administrators have entered a confidentiality agreement. Which could mean that the company has placed a bid for Saab or will place a bid within shortly.

"We have signed a confidentiality agreement, but that means that I can not say much," said Zamier Ahmed, board member of Brightwell Holdings to Swedish Radio P4 Väst.

"We have close communication with the administrators. We can make an offer as soon as they [the administrators] are ready to receive bids," said Ahmed.

Alphan Manas CEO of Brightwell told Turkish news that they signed the agreement on Saturday.

"We signed a confidentiality agreement last week on Saturday," Manas told Turkish MSNBC.

And the Turks seem confident that they are in the best position to buy Saab.

"We have to see what terms we can offer GM. Obviously, we are standing by at the moment. Within two weeks we will gain more clarity about the future situation. But, in our opinion, because the Chinese and Indian companies require an approval process, I see a low likelihood of them buying," said Manas.

Brightwell seem to be especially interested in Saab's electric car technology.

"My aim is to take the brand back and bring out an electric car, especially in Turkey. Saab is now ready for the electric car. So electric cars are my priority," Manas said and continued "It's my goal to develop a good electric car brand. This is the main reason for my interest in Saab. Currently, there's an electric vehicle prototype. It has been developed together with U.S. and Swedish companies. The product is very very good. Very very successful. We have seen the product."

Manas is obviously talking about the Saab 9-3 SportCombi ePower prototype cars which were under assembly when Saab ran into financial problems last year. As far as I know, some of the car were assembled and should be fully functional electric cars.

The question is if Brightwell plan to keep the production in Sweden for long, or if they will move it Turkey within a few years.

"My goal is to produce electric cars, absolutely and definitely in Turkey," Manas said.


Over to something else. One man who most likely has had a great day today is head of the Saab car museum Peter Bäckström. On Tuesday the municipality of Trollhättan together with Saab AB and the Wallenberg Foundation bought the car collection and in doing so making sure that it stays in Sweden and Trollhättan.

"I don't think I really have grasped it yet. The solution with Saab AB, Trollhättan city, and the Wallenberg could not have been better. This opportunity the buyers give us allow us to begin to look forward," said Peter Bäckström to TTELA.

And the Saab veteran club is ready to help the museum by working for free.

"Around one hundred of Saab's seniors are probably interested in being hosts at the museum from time to time," said Olle Granlund, who retired from Saab ten years where he amongst other things were project manager for the 9-5.

In other words, the future for the Saab museum looks promising. So at least the Saab heritage has been secured!

GM won't license its technology to anyone bidding on Saab

Today General Motors has made it clear that it will not license its technology to anyone bidding on Saab.

"We are not in discussions with anyone regarding Saab and we will not license technology to any buyer," GM spokesman James Cain said to SvD.

Cain could however not say if this also includes the current Saab 9-3. Earlier we have gotten report that Saab owns the technology to most of the 9-3. But GM is an important supplier of components to the car, among other things to engines and gearboxes.

GM's statement clearly shows that GM never had any intentions other than seeing Saab die. And it also clearly shows that anyone bidding on Saab must have a business plan totally independent of GM technology, which would make Youngman the only likely candidate.

Reports from this week indicates that if Youngman buys Saab, the company will only produce the current Saab 9-3 and without components from GM. And when Saab's future Phoenix technology is finalized, the company will use this technology to gradually increase the number of models starting with the next generation Saab 9-3.

Turkish Brighwell Holdings has said several times that if they buy Saab they want to license technology from GM. Furthermore, Brightwell has said that they have been in contact with GM and that GM is positive to licensing technology to Brightwell. But today's statement leaves no possibility for Brightwell. Today's statement actually suggests that Brightwell is talking BS.

I now hope that the bankruptcy administrators will put their full focus on Youngman. Youngman is the only viable candidate. Youngman is the only party which has shown the commitment, tenacity and seriousness required to buy Saab and make Saab a success.

The bankruptcy administrators have called a press conference on Saturday. It is expected that they will announce that they will accept bids and are opening up for negotiations.

Turkish Brightwell Holdings also has bid in the works

Yesterday we learned that Chinese vehicle manufacturer Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile plans to place a bid on the Saab bankruptcy estate next week. Now Bloomberg reports that also the Turkish investment company Brightwell Holdings is preparing a bid.

"We will make a bid very shortly, there’s no question," board member of Brightwell Zamier Ahmed told Bloomberg in a phone interview.

The Turkish company has earlier invested in both environmental friendly energy companies as well as automotive companies and has expressed interest in Saab from an environmental point of view.

Zamier Ahmed of Brightwell Holdings

Yesterday local Trollhättan newspaper TTELA reported that Saab's former CEO, Chairman and large shareholder, Victor Muller, is working together with Brightwell.

"I am working closely with Victor Muller, the bankruptcy administrators and others from the Saab management," Zamier Ahmed said to TTELA. Ahmed also added that they have the full support of the Turkish government.

Victor Muller confirmed to TTELA that he was indeed working with Brightwell.

"I believe that Brightwell has sufficient funds to see this deal through. But I am not in the position to determine if they will succeed or not," Muller said.

To Bloomberg Zamier Ahmed said that they want to keep Saab in Trollhättan and Sweden and revive the manufacturing. He continued saying that they will need at least two weeks before submitting any offer as it's still in the middle of a due diligence in order to decide how much to offer. He also added that any transaction will require approval from Saab's former owner, General Motors, as well as the Swedish government and the European Investment Bank.

So as a Saab enthusiast, should we cheer for the Turks or the Chinese? I have not decided yet. Victor Muller working for the Turks could be a indication, but then again I assume he works for them because they pay him? And from earlier we know that Swedish authorities have been skeptic of Muller and did actually push for a complete sale of Saab to the Chinese. I wish I knew which of the parties have the support of Mats Fägerhag and Kjell ac Bergström, because I have full confidence in those two Saab veterans!