Tata NOT bidding for Saab - but Mahindra are

Tata may not want Saab - but Mahindra do.

Despite claims that Tata have placed a bid for Saab, Ratan Tata has said they have not but confirms Mahindra has.

Yesterday, in the midst of all the news coming in from Geneva, we heard rumours that Tata had placed a bid said to be worth $350 million for Saab. Which didn’t add up for us, so we didn’t report it.

We now learn from the horse’s mouth that Tata has not placed a bid for Saab, and has no interest in acquiring another car maker, but Ratan Tata did let slip that Mahindra has placed a bid for Saab – just as we predicted.

Although Tata says it has no interest in making further acquisitions of car makers (not even Aston Martin?), Tata did say that they’re not ruling out acquisitions in technology and components to develop a sourcing network for Tata Motors and JLR.

The sum claimed to be Tata’s bid for Saab we must assume is the Mahindra bid, and it’s a bid that seems entirely in line with the reported bid from China’s Youngman (which our translation managed to make $2 billion when we ran the story!), which would put Mahindra in a strong position to acquire Saab.

And we would think GM would have far fewer problems with an Indian acquisition of Saab than a Chinese one. Probably.

We should know the fate of Saab any day now.