Spyker Cars said its newly acquired Saab unit expects to increase its output by about 18 percent this year, as it takes on the challenge of bringing an automaker many times its size back to profitability.
Spyker also said that a final payment of 24 million euros to General Motors for Saab due this summer would likely be paid out of its own funds "without attracting outside funding."
Spyker spent $400 million buying the iconic Swedish brand last month and put it on an ambitious turnaround path but neither Saab nor Spyker has made any money in the last decade.
Spyker reported a net loss of 22.9 million euros ($30.5 million) in 2009, the last full year of the tiny Dutch automaker's operations before its audacious takeover of Saab, compared with a loss of 24.8 million euros in 2008. It only produced 31 of its exotic 200,000 euro sportscars, down from 43 in 2008.
Saab plans to sell 50,000 to 60,000 Saab cars this year, Spyker said. The Swedish carmaker sold 39,903 cars in 2009 and 93,295 in 2008. Analysts have said Spyker must sell at least 75,000 cars per year to be cash flow positive.
Spyker shares, which have nearly doubled since talks a deal with Saab first emerged late last year, were down 3.3 percent at 3.19 euros in Amsterdam at 1005 GMT. With a free float of about 16 percent, most share activity is driven by retail activity.
Spyker Chief Executive Victor Muller, a hard-charging former fashion executive, and mergers and acquisitions lawyer, has vowed the group will be profitable in 2012.
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