Saab is to be closed down by General Motors, after no new buyer for the troubled Swedish firm could be found. Some 3400 people employed directly by Saab are expected to lose their jobs, and 1100 dealers worldwide will have to find new franchises.
GM’s European president Nick Reilly said no deal could be reached with the sole remaining bidder, Spyker Cars.
Hilton Holloway blog: What went wrong for Saab?Saab's history in pictures
“Despite the best efforts of all involved, it has become very clear that the due diligence required to complete this complex transaction could not be executed in a reasonable time. In order to maintain operations, Saab needed a quick resolution,” he said.
Unresolvable issues
In a press conference shortly after the announcement was made, GM Vice President of Corporate Planning John Smith said that “during the course of the negotiations with Spyker, unresolvable issues arose on both sides.” He declined to explain the exact nature of the particular issues, but added that “there comes a time in these kind of discussions when it’s clear that no further progress can be made. At that point, the best course for everyone is just to move on.”
Smith did confirm that the failure of Spyker’s bid wasn’t due to lack of support from either the European Investment Bank or the Swedish government. “The EIB supported our negotiations right until they ended this morning.”
“The Swedish government also worked particularly hard to secure a future for Saab,” Smith continued “and was disappointed with our decision to wind down.” Smith went on to suggest, however, that the Swedish government’s refusal to act as an investor in Saab, but only as a potential guarantor of a loan to a separate bidder, made GM’s task to save Saab considerably more difficult.
Economies of scale
Summing up GM’s ownership of the troubled car-maker, Smith said that there had been “no shortage of effort on behalf of GM, over 20 years, to put Saab on a good footing. It was always difficult to integrate the company into GM,” Smith went on, “and to find the bigger economies of scale that would make its business more profitable.”
“We do take responsibility for what’s happened to Saab over those 20 years,” Smith admitted, “but in the end, there was really no more that we could do."
Spyker's reaction
Spyker boss Victor Muller was disapointed a deal couldn't be reached.
Victor Muller: “We sincerely regret that we are not able to complete this transaction with GM. We worked 24/7 for three weeks, but the complexity of the transaction, in combination with the strict deadline, simply did not allow us to complete the transaction in time. Our thoughts are with the wonderful management and employees of Saab in these challenging times.”
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Re: GM closes Saab
Agreed. If the price is right, if the IPR is sorted, why would GM NOT sell Saab? It can't be because of fears for future competition - I doubt if many Saab owners would be tempted into any of the current GM products available in the UK or Europe (or US come to that!)
So what could be the reason for GM not to sell, if they don't? It can't matter to them if the new buyer is viable long term, just so long as they get their cash up front! After all, if Spyker or Merbanco can't cut it with Saab after a year or two, GM won't look bad - they will go down as at least having given Saab a chance. The bad PR for cutting them down without a chance would be far worse I think.
So logic would say, if all conditions for sale are genuinely met, GM should decide to sell....shoudln't they?
Re: GM closes Saab
Hilton, you are the Saab champion in UK motoring press, please do your bit to support Saab to strive for independence over closure. GM is still in negotiations with Spyker and another consortium so it's not over yet. There is a strongly held view in the Saab community that GM wish to close Saab regardless due to corporate political pressure - this can be exposing factual criticism of their actions and a groundswell of opinion in favour of giving the underdog a chance of independent life. If Saab can realise a value to GM (and the US taxpayer who own GM) now (and there is a significant value being offered), why would they not sell? Saab should live or die buy its business plan which has been approved by KPMG, EIB, Deutche Bank and Swedish Government - yet GM want to close. Let them give Saab the chance to live or die by their OWN actions, not a global corporate 'tidying up' decision. Please highlight the ongoing nature of the negotiations and help Saab survive - we're relying on you to keep getting the true news out there and thanks for work to date.
Saabsunited.com as ever has the latest info.
Thank-you.
Re: GM closes Saab
I own a 9-3 Viggen, Some say it's the most understeering car ever built. I use it as a daily driver and as it's over 10 years old things have started to break. However It is still one of the most emotionally fulfilling cars I've ever driven. The SAAB has a certain character, a soul even. I've driven a Jaguar S-Type R, A Mercedes SL500, A Jaguar XF, Lotus Elise all cars that have better handling and 0-60 performance. However apart from the Elise, none gave be the sort of emotional rush the SAAB offers. It has amazing pickup when you boot it but will also return me nearly 40mpg when I don't. The seats are better than almost all other manufacturers (do take my word read the reviews). So why did the cars not sell? Because you were told it was just a Vauxhall. Well I don't know of any vauxhall that makes me feel alive when driving it. In fact even the SL didn't make me feel alive because it done exactly what I wanted it to. to some up the SL.. Great German engineering but like the Germans, boring as F... GM did under invest and cancelled models. They made SAAB responsible for all of GM's AWD, turbo-charged, Hybrid and e85 programs, let the company take the hit on the expenses but didn't allow them to produce any SAAB cars with that new technology. Talk about a cinderella story without a happy end. Recently one of the Koenigsegg investors (Eker) has been reported as saying that GM didn't believe in the new SAAB business plan. Then they saw it could work and started to get greedy. That's when Koenigsegg pulled out. So GM again, it's been GM all along and it was GM in the end that killed the deal. As for GM needing OPEL for engineering, Given the information that 80% of the new Epsilon architecture was developed by SAAB engineers. I'm not sure OPEL has any engineering expertise either. Sure they can build cars but will they be competitive enough? GM will crash and burn I have written that as far back as June this year because their is based on de-scaling getting rid of their heritage brands and concentrating on North America. They will flush Billions down the drain trying the establish Cadillac in Europe and fail like they have on the past 2 attempts and continually keep their highly paid managers whilst making the workforce redundant to save costs. In the meantime VW, Toyota, BMW, NISSAN/PSA, and FIAT will eat away at their market share in North America until there is nothing left.