Car manufacturer Saab are in great danger of going into liquidation due to the fact that assembly lines are stood still and company accounts empty due to a large decrease in sales.
Although the company is in turmoil, several large Chinese companies have been falling over each other to buy the Swedish giant out or at least gain access to the technology. On May 18th a large meeting was set up with several Chinese companies and Saab to discuss the future of the company.
The NDRC arranged the meeting between Beijing automotive industry holdings corp, Hawtai motor pangda automobile trade, and China Youngman automobile to stop a bidding war beginning for Saab.
In the meeting between the companies a possible combined venture to buy out Saabs Dutch owner Spyker was also discussed as a possibility. In 2009 BAIC, Chinas fifth largest auto maker, had tried to acquire Saab although 80,000 Saabs a year had dropped off the assembly line. The owners at the time, general motors’, rejected the offer and sold the company onto Spyker in 2010 but it agreed to sell BAIC technology for producing two, pre 2005 models – the Saab 9-3 and the Saab 9-5 for a £200 million fee.
Spyker still controls technology for several of Saabs latest models, but technology went unused due to the financial state that the company was in. Spyker reported selling 9,674 cars in the first quater, up 167% from last year, but still had a debt of 207 million and reported a year loss of around 221 million.