General Motors Co. sold Saab Automobile to Spyker Cars NV, the Dutch maker of supercars, for at least $400 million in cash and preferred shares, averting the extinction of the 72-year-old Swedish carmaker.
"The transaction secures the future of Saab Automobile and signals the start of an exciting new era for the iconic brand," Spyker said in a statement after Chief Executive Officer Victor Muller and Saab CEO Jan-Aake Jonsson signed the final accord today in Stockholm.
The completion of GM's 14-month effort to sell Saab allows about 3,500 local workers to maintain their jobs and keeps the Trollhaettan-based company's 1,100 dealers worldwide in business. The deal is part of Detroit-based GM's strategy to dispose of the Saab, Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn brands to focus in the U.S. on Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.
Spyker, the Zeewolde, Netherlands-based manufacturer of the C8 Aileron sports car, is buying Saab for $74 million in cash and $326 million in preferred shares in the new company, which is likely to be called Saab Spyker Automobiles. A person familiar with the matter has said that GM is also getting $100 million of Saab's liquidity.
"This is great for Saab and its employees, but at the same time, now starts a huge challenge," said Martin Skoeld, an auto industry researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics. "They must ramp up sales again, and they must do it quickly."
Sales Target
Saab will compete with Volkswagen AG's Audi luxury division and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Muller said today at a news conference in Stockholm. Saab can make a profit by selling 100,000 to 125,000 cars a year, and will work to develop a successor to the mainstay 9-3 sedan by 2012, he said.
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