Five potential bidders for Saab

Saab 9-3X

Even while the recent press conference of Saab receivers didn't unveiled any breaking headlines, some news are still there.

Firstly there are five interested parties, potential bidders. The receivers didn't comment on any of them by name. Three are known : chinese Youngman - Lotus, turkish Brightwell Holdings and indian Mahindra. The names of the remaining two will stay hidden. From earlier claims it comes out, that there is at least one swedish interested party.

A name, BMW, resonates in many comments and also behind the scenes. It would be a good mother company, but it remains open if this is the truth and what business strategy may lie behind. On a personal note don't like BMW's design too much, but the technical part is great.

Secondly, around 100 people are still on Saab's payroll. These people are very important for a possible restart of the factory. There are managers as well as technical workers with unique skills. It must be a decision of the receivers to keep them still in, even when time is critical and money is running out. Such a decision must be part of a plan, namely to sell Saab as a whole with a restart of the production on the background.

One more update came about Saab Parts, the highly profitable company producing spare parts for Saabs. The EIB (European Investment Bank) loan was payed by the swedish NDO (National Debt Office) and NDO is taking over Saab Parts. In practice that means a takeover by the swedish government, while Saab Parts remains as a part of the package offered for sale by the administrators.

If someone buys Saab, there will be a debt to NDO to be covered. It is somewhere between 100 and 200 M €. If nobody buys Saab, Saab Parts remain government (NDO) owned and the debt will be repayed from the profit of their business.

Sources : saabsunited.com and saabblog.net