Will Saab end up in Turkish or Chinese hands?
Saab may be bankrupt – and its car heritage from the Saab Museum up for sale – but that hasn’t stopped interest in Saab as a viable car maker from prospective suitors. And it seems the front-runners may be Brightwell Holdings – a Turkish Equity firm – and China’s Youngman, which has already injected money in to Saab and still seems intent on pursuing the Swedish car maker.
Automotive News are reporting that Brightwell Holdings – which has investments in energy, technology and transport – is in the process of putting together a bid for Saab, and Brightwell board member Zamier Ahmed said that it was evaluating Saab’s assets and will make a bid in the next two weeks.
Any bid from Brightwell Holdings will probably have more chance of success that a new bid from China’s Youngman as there is unlikely to be the same sort of obstacles put in the way of a sale to Turkey as GM did with bids from China. But that hasn’t stopped Youngman from making it clear they’re still interested in Saab.
Youngman as already tried to buy Saab from Victor Muller but was rebuffed by GM and its concerns over GM technology licensed to Saab ending up being used in competition with GM’s partners in China. But Youngman now seem keen to take on Saab without GM technology, planning to use their own platforms and engines to revive the marque.
Could Saab rise Phoenix-like from the ashes of bankruptcy? The odds say no, but it’s not over yet.
Have your say - leave a comment