Saab’s extended January 7th deadline came and went. Four groups handed in offers: Spyker put in its third bid. Luxembourg-based private equity group Genii Capital joined with Formula 1 tycoon Bernard Ecclestone and Hakan Samuelsson, former head of truckmaker MAN, in a bid. Wyoming-based Merbanco Inc., and a Swedish investor group also submitted proposals. Apparently, the proposals did not impress. Saab declared bankruptcy, for the second time in a year.
In what the DetN calls “an ominous sign,” GM hired the restructuring firm AlixPartners to manage “an orderly wind-down” of Saab. Of course, officially GM is evaluating the proposals, and further officially, “the evaluation is not affected by the appointment of AlixPartners.” But why buy a lock if you don’t want to shut the door.
AlixPartners is quite at home at G.M. AlixPartners was the General’s aide when GM entered bankruptcy last summer. A top AlixPartners executive, Albert A. Koch, is supervising the dismantling of the G.M. operations that remain in Chapter 11, says the New York Times.
Stefan Loefven, the head of the Swedish IF Metall union which has a representative on Saab’s board, told Agence France Presse that Saab’s board has decided on Friday to put Saab in liquidation. Loeven is not happy with GM: “”It is irresponsible of GM as an owner to go in two directions, both pursuing the sale of Saab and the winding up.” Now, the Saab board had already declared bankruptcy a little less than a year ago, but the ghosts of Trollhättan continue to haunt.
Oh, the Swedish government has to approve the appointment of AlixPartners. Stay tuned for many more episodes.
I am extremely surprised no Chinese companies are making bids for Saab. At the very least, they’ll get a worldwide dealership network and the chance to put the Saab badge on anything they make.
With them anxious to get rid of some of their US dollars, I’d have thought it was a no-brainer.
First, they don’t want the warranty cost.
Second, the Saab name is so tainted that any Chinese brand name has more value. I mean, except for the remaining 10 Saab fans that purchased a Saab last year of course. They still think Saab has value (but failed so far to bid).
Saab is the brand no one needs. GM quality, and GM knockoff designs. But unlike GM they won’t have uncle sugar to finance their $ 5000 cash on the hood. So why would anyone buy Saab? the other GM brands themselves are garbage and would have disappeared if it wasn’t for uncle Sam, and they sell much more successfully than Saab.
Saab had a value when they first had small hatchback FWD save and reliable cars. Nowadays many other manufacturers have that too and Saab skipped the reliable and hatchback part entirely.
Saab really is a niche brand, in most countries there are not even dealers. And when you ask kids about Saab they might remember the their parents fancied the Saab convertible in the 80’s . That’s it. Not even Porsche could survive on its own (with 5 times the sales volume in a high price high profit segment) and Porsche at least is dreamed off by kids. I’m a firm believer that the remaining car companies need to sell 5 million cars a year to survive. And too many brands in one company dilute all marketing efforts.
Chinese already got what they wanted – everything of old 9-3 and 9-5. The new 9-5 with full of innovation is going to be delivered to the Buick plant in China. It is scheduled on Jan.15, another deadline GM set for bids. GM secretly ran the process to move the new 9-5 tools and assemblies to Buick in China while delaying the decision for the bids. Such a great liar. GM may sell SAAB, but without the core and most valuable component – technology. They already sold old 9-3 and 9-5 to China. They are going to implant new 9-5 into Buick next week. The next step would be to merging 9-1 and 9-4 concept models into either Opel or Chevy while they keep saying that they are gonna consider the bids for the next few weeks. But the importance of this step is far less than taking new 9-5 out of SAAB.
As for Chinese, why do they need to pay for the brand name while the core parts are physically coming to the land of China? Within three years, Chinese will be able to produce exactly same models of 9-5 under their brand name. They have world-best copying skill.
GM may take a bid – but then, there would nothing valuable left. Only the name SAAB and employees.
SAAB was doomed the moment GM started control over the brand. My first car was a 2007 SAAB 9000 so i am going to miss putting the key by the hand brake.
Nevertheless, Cammy Corrigan is right. Chinese love the SAABs- they should buy it out.
US Government and US taxpayers: please kill GM before it’s too late. GM tactics are to the auto industry what George W Bush is to World peace.
Nutella, Nutella, Nutella! Come on. Leave politics out of it. I can hear your heart bleeding!
I suspect the issue is about warranty cost. In the past, vehicle companies where so anxious to rid themselves of losers that they struck up deals that actually cost them money. GM can’t afford to do that.
This would seem like a good juncture for Michael K. to give us the True Delta perspective on SAAB waranty visavis the rest of the industry!
There is apparently no real compelling business case for keeping Saab open or selling it. Hence all the dithering.
For all those older folks, Saab is the Franco of the auto world. First he’s dead then he’s not. And then he’s dead. (Franco was the dictator of Spain and died apparently in the 70’s maybe).
PS. This hearse looks much better than one of the previous articles picture – even though it is a photoshop picture?
<There is apparently no real compelling business case for keeping Saab open or selling it>
By GM standards, the company that went from #1 to bankruptcy, no.
Does GM know what a business case is ?? They’d rather lose $$ by closing it than make a profit by selling it ? What planet is GM management from ?
Now THAT is one cool hearse. Can I have a ride? Oh, wait…
Kudos on the new hearse also, is that a Swedish company conversion instead of the previously awful one that some readers had identified as British?
Saab’s time on earth is through, it is certainly less deserving of saving than Oldsmobile or Pontiac.
Dan, +1 on both points.
I am going to brood about SAAB for a long time. There is no substitute for me. Subaru just dosen’t do it. :-(
"Four groups handed in offers…"
The word "offers" needs an asterisk. Here’s how these offers go: "GM, you give us Saab. You put cash on the hood (i.e. you absorb severance costs, you clean up the books beforehand). You stay involved, passing costs through to the US taxpayers. We don’t give you a damn dime, ever. Our contribution is to solve your political problem."
That’s exactly how the dialogue went regarding Opel, which led directly to GM’s "decision" to keep Opel.
I don’t get this: If you offer to sell something like GM did, aren’t you supposed to know what you are selling ? Are you saying that’s it’s up to the bidders to define what’s for sale rather than the buyer ?
The ugly truth is that (new)GM still doesn’t know what it’s doing and their past accounting practices (burdening Saab with engineering costs and distributing Saab profits to the US entities to show that Saab is a money loser) might come to light.
tparkit: actually I thought it was GM’s unrealistic conditions for intellectual property going forward that nixed the Saab deal with Koeningsegg, as well as Penske’s deal for Saturn, or even the Opel deal (which they not-so-secretly wanted to keep all along). GM legal can kill anything under the weight of endless T&C’s. These would be very complex deals under the best of circumstances, but absent any foreign government handouts GM seems to be doing little more than stalling while selling off or killing off pieces. It’s a huge company run by a bureaucratic maze of legal and accounting. The engineers and plant personnel are good folks who work hard, many are even car guys! Someone has got to shake up the top floors of RenCen, Ed may be the guy but the quicksand already seems to be draggin him down.