Saab deal with China not valid says Pangda Chairman
Saab is waiting for a deal with Chinese companies Pangda and Youngman to save them. But Panda’s chairman says the deal is no longer valid.
Update 10 am 12/10/11: Saab & Pangda have issued a statement about this story and say that the reports of the Saab deal with Pangda and Youngman as being no longer valid are “…based on a misunderstanding”. Whatever that means.
Yesterday there was yet more speculation that Saab will be declared bankrupt as real doubt about the deal with Chinese companies Pangda and Youngman started to surface. And now it looks like the last nail in Saab’s coffin.
Reuters are reporting this morning that Pangda Chairman Pang Qinghua – speaking to reporters at an industry forum in Chengdu – has said the deal to take a majority shareholding in Saab was no longer valid since Saab entered bankruptcy protection.
In a further blow to Victor Muller’s last chance of keeping Saab afloat, Pang Qinghua said that the Chinese side of the deal – Pangda and Youngman – have not even submitted the proposed deal for Chinese Government approval yet.
Sadly, this all makes sense. What company in their right mind would pay €245 million for a company that has little left to offer apart from a noble history of building cars? Certainly not the Chinese, who have been doing business since the rest of us were still living in caves.
It now seems likely that court protection will be removed from Saab as there is probably no prospect of a reorganisation as required under the court protection order now the China deal is dead.
The wolves are gathering.
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