According to Swedish business newspaper Dagens Industri, a new and yet undisclosed Chinese company has entered the battle to win Saab.
"It's correct that for the last two weeks there have been four parties interested in the Saab business," said Lars Holmqvist, former head of the European suppliers association CLEPA to DI.
The four interested parties would be Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile, Indian Mahindra & Mahindra, a Chinese-Japanese consortium with unknown stakeholders and now the latest bidder, an undisclosed Chinese company.
"I do not know how serious they are. I still believe that Chinese Youngman is in the lead seeing that they have already invested money in Saab," Holmqvist told Swedish news agency TT.
Speculations have it that this new indisclosed party could be Chinese Qoros Auto. Qoros is a new car brand aiming to launched their first car at the Geneva Motor Show next year. It has been said that the cars will be produced by Magna Steyr, but if the company acquires Saab in Trollhättan, that could change.
We have reported earlier here on Life with Saab that a number of former Saab executives, managers and engineers have actually been hired by Qoros. And that would of course mean that Qoros now has a good understanding of the values and possibilities in the Saab bankruptcy estate.
Qoros also has hired former people from Volvo, BMW and Volkswagen, and the company seem to be serious about entering the European market with competitive vehicles.
DI's sources say that the administrators may start negotiations with the new stakeholder should the talks with Mahindra and Youngman break down.
Interesting days a head!
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.
