Officials with General Motors Co.'s Saab unit said the brand has received serious expressions of interest from potential buyers since Tuesday's collapse of a deal to sell the Swedish car maker to Koenigsegg Group AB. Saab Automobile AB officials are now racing to build a case for GM's board of directors and its chief executive to keep Saab alive, a spokesman said.
Saab has held talks since Tuesday with at least two U.S. investment firms, Wyoming-based Merbanco LLC. and Renco Group Inc. in New York, according to several people familiar with the matter. At least one of those firms would be open to working with Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., a Chinese company that had planned to partner with Koenigsegg.
"We've had intense dialogue with potential buyers," Eric Geers, a Saab spokesman, said Friday. He said Saab's management team, headed by Jan-Ake Jonsson, is preparing a presentation for GM's board of directors that lays out the company's options.
Mr. Jonsson's case to save Saab will be bolstered by comments from Swedish government officials on Friday indicating Saab's home country remains ready to act as the company's guarantor on €400 million loans from the European Investment Bank. Sweden will send a delegation to Detroit to meet with GM officials early next week.
GM's board will begin its regular monthly meeting Monday evening, and a decision on Saab's future could be made public by Tuesday. GM's post-Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring plan included selling, closing or fixing several of the company's auto brands.
Saturn and Pontiac are slated for closure, while Hummer is in the process of being sold to a Chinese machinery maker. Chief Executive Frederick "Fritz" Henderson had planned to sell control of Opel and Vauxhall in Europe, but the board reversed course earlier in November and decided to keep it.
The board will rely heavily on Mr. Henderson's guidance on Saab, one person close to the matter said. Earlier in the year, Mr. Henderson decided GM's capital constraints meant keeping Saab was unrealistic. It's unclear whether he has a preference for engaging in talks with another buyer, or abandoning the brand once and for all.
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