Reports first surfaced of Koenigsegg’s interest in General Motors’ Saab division last month, with the latest news indicating the Swedish supercar maker has sealed the deal for the GM cast-off brand. Koenigsegg and a group of Norwegian investors were among a group of three bidding for the Saab brand.

According to Sweden’s SVT, Koenigsegg has inked a letter of intent to buy the Saab division from General Motors. “The buyers have signed a letter of intent to buy Saab,” SVT said.
“Final negotiations about details on the deal will go on in the next months.”
Representatives from GM and Saab have yet to confirm the report.
Both Saad and GM have recently indicated a sale could be finalized by the end of June or early July. GM put Saab up for sale – along with its Hummer and Saturn brands – before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month.
http://www.leftlanenews.com/report-k...aab-buyer.html

The ongoing tale of Saab's sale may be drawing to a close, as early reports out of Sweden today have General Motors and Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg, along with a group of Norwegian investors, agreeing to the deal in a letter of intent. GM confirmed in its February viability plan that it would no longer supply Saab with funding and that the Swedish company would become an independent business as of January 1, 2010.

An official announcement of the sale is expected this week, Saab officials revealed to Automotive News. In its own turnaround plan presented to creditors, Saab confirmed that it is seeking to write-off roughly three quarters of its non-prioritized debt, aiming for positive cashflow by 2011. If the decision to sell to the Koenigsegg-led group goes through, don't expect final details to emerge for another month or more, however, as final negotiations on the details of the deal still have to be hammered out.

Saab spokeswoman, Gunilla Gustavs, also revealed that there were three remaining bidders left for the company and the sale process would be completed soon. "I think that during this week, chances are good. It could be anytime now," she said.

Koenigsegg, meanwhile, says it has what it takes to save Saab. Koenigsegg co-owner, Baard Eker, said over the weekend that his company has several good solutions to bring into Saab. Strong words coming from a man whose company has less than 50 employees and turns out only a handful of $1 million supercars each year.

However, thanks to 28 billion Swedish kronor (approximately $3.23 billion) in loans and loan guarantees from the Swedish government, plus help from private investors, Saab will be able to operate as usual for the foreseeable future but the company is still predicting a loss of more than $300 million for the current year. Saab lost about $340 million in 2008, according to documents filed with the Swedish court that granted the company a stay of execution.

The injection of funding will be used to help launch three new models over the next 18 months and hopefully see the company become an innovator of technology like it had been in the past. Some important automotive technologies pioneered by Saab include headlamp wipers and washers, impact-absorbing bumpers, wastegate-operated turbocharger systems, and one of the world’s first 16-valve turbocharged engines.

The three new models planned include the recently revealed 9-3X as well as the new 9-4X and 9-5, all of which are desperately needed. Last year Saab saw its global sales drop 25.5% to just 93,338 units and 2009 is expected to be even lower.

It's easy to look at the bailouts and bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler as a big-government bonanza. Some even see tints of socialism in the loans and subsequent government ownership stakes. But as Ford points out today, there was more at stake than just two companies.

The entire industry, and in some ways, the entire U.S. economy, was riding on the survival of GM and Chrysler, says Ford Motor Co executive chairman Bill Ford, Jr. "It would have been so catastrophic to have a supply-base meltdown because it would have brought down all the auto manufacturers and frankly some other industries as well," Ford told CNBC TV according to an Automotive News report.

A cascading chain of bankruptcies was one of the primary fears of an unassisted GM or Chrysler bankruptcy. Because so many companies rely on GM and Chrysler to purchase their parts, and because there's no easy replacement outlet for those parts, there's no way for the supplier base to survive without them.

Ford cautions that the fix remains in a state of flux, however, and that further action, including direct supplier support, should be taken.

STOCKHOLM (Dow Jones)--Swedish boutique supercar maker Koenigsegg Group AB has reached an agreement to acquire General Motors Corp.'s (GMGMQ) Saab Automobile AB unit for an undisclosed sum, the companies said Tuesday.
"Closing this deal represents the best chance for Saab to emerge a stronger company," said GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster.
Saab, part of GM since 2000, was put up for sale earlier this year as part of GM's efforts to return to profitability. Saab has been loss-making for several years and has suffered an even sharper drop in sales than the other brands being sold or closed in GM's reorganization.
Just 783 Saab models were sold in the U.S. during May, a fall of 64% and less than the Hummer truck brand being offloaded to Chinese investors. May sales in Europe slumped 66% to 2,191 last month, according to data released Tuesday.
Last year, Saab sold a little less than 94,000 cars. It employs about 3,400 workers, most at its main factory in Trollhattan in southwestern Sweden.
Saab was granted creditor protection in Sweden Feb. 20 and GM, also in bankruptcy protection, said it wanted to offload the unit by the year's end. The sale, expected to close by the end of the third quarter of this year, includes an expected $600 million funding commitment from the European Investment Bank guaranteed by the Swedish government, the companies said in a statement.
Additional financial support is to be provided by GM and Koenigsegg to fund Saab's operations and program investments, including plans to launch several new products that are in the final stages of development, like the long-awaited revamp of Saab's flagship 9-5 model. As part of the proposed transaction, GM will continue to provide Saab with design and powertrain technology during a defined time period.
"Today's announcement is great news for Saab's current and future customers, dealers, suppliers and employees around the globe," said Jan Ake Jonsson, managing director of Saab.
Koenigsegg, based in Angelholm, southern Sweden, was founded by 22-year-old entrepreneur Christian von Koenigsegg in 1994 to make exclusive sports cars for the super-rich. Analysts have questioned whether the boutique car manufacturer has the experience needed to help Saab, but GM's Forster said Koenigsegg's ownership was the best solution.
"Koenigsegg Group's unique combination of innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and financial strength, combined with Koenigsegg's proven ability to create world-class Swedish performance cars in a highly efficient manner, made it the right choice for Saab as well as for General Motors," said Forster.
Swedish union IF Metall welcomed the decision. "It is clearly a different ownership solution, but it is perhaps precisely what is needed to realize Saab's true potential. We have always insisted that we want to see an owner who wants to and can develop Saab and activities in Sweden, with research and development and production," said IF Metall's Stefan Loefven.
GM itself filed for protection from its creditors earlier this month.

As part of the proposed transaction, GM will continue to provide Saab with design and powertrain technology during a defined time period.

-- Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. will hold meetings this week with General Motors Corp. about its bid for Opel should Magna International Inc.’s offer for the European carmaker fail, two people familiar with the talks said.

Beijing Auto executives are meeting managers at GM Europe’s office in Zurich and in Ruesselsheim, Germany, where Opel is based, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Magna still hasn’t resolved how many jobs it will cut, how it will fund pension liabilities, or what rights it will have to use GM technology in future.

The talks are a sign the Chinese company hasn’t given up on buying the maker of Vauxhall cars after GM and Germany’s government chose Aurora, Ontario-based Magna and its partner, Russian lender OAO Sberbank, as their preferred bidder in May. Beijing Auto may face competition from Italy’s Fiat SpA, which has said it’s still interested in acquiring Opel.

“There are some unresolved issues attached to the Magna plan,” said Willi Diez, head of the Nuertingen, Germany-based Institute for Automobile Industry, a state-funded think tank. “It’s legitimate for GM and Magna to try to get the most out of the deal, but that’s when the sticking points arise.”

Chinese authorities have moved to block the sale of General Motors' Hummer brand to a Chinese company, the BBC reported, citing Chinese state radio. The sale to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industries had been announced earlier this month as part of the bankrupt automaker's recovery plan. Chinese authorities cited environmental concerns and Sichuan Tengzhong's inexperience in building automobiles in moving to block the sale, the BBC reported

General Motors Corp. said it will end its 25-year manufacturing joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp. in California, saying the two companies couldn't agree on what future product would be made at the facility.

The joint venture, called New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., currently churns out the Pontiac Vibe, which GM will stop making within 60 days, and the Toyota Corolla. Toyota's new president, Akio Toyoda, served as a vice president at the plant early in his career.

For GM, the joint venture was an opportunity to see first-hand Toyota's revolutionary system of lean manufacturing, streamlined business practices that have since been widely adopted throughout the world. Toyota, then considering whether to begin producing vehicles in North America, wanted an opportunity to test its production system on a U.S. work force.

Started in 1984, it was part of former GM Chairman Robert Smith's efforts to revamp the Detroit auto maker.

The Fremont, Calif., factory's future became uncertain as GM moved to shutter plants and cut out all but the most essential functions as it raced to restructure under government watch. Pontiac is among four brands GM is shedding in bankruptcy court and the only one that will be wound down rather than sold to another company.

Toyota had been accounting for nearly three-quarters of the plant's output.

"We have enjoyed a very positive and beneficial partnership with Toyota for the past 25 years, and we remain open to future opportunities of mutual interest," said GM North America President Troy Clarke.

GM's ownership interest in the venture will become join assets in the portion of GM being sold as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

Toyota Motor Corp. may offer to supply a version of its Prius hybrid car to General Motors Corp. during a meeting between the companies’ chief executives, two people familiar with the plan said.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda and GM’s Fritz Henderson will meet in Michigan in August said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan isn’t public. A GM-badged car based on the Prius is among the options for new products at a jointly owned factory in California after GM said it would end assembly of the Pontiac Vibe at the plant earlier than planned.

A version of the world’s top-selling hybrid car may help bankrupt GM win U.S. customers and would give it an incentive to keep open the joint-venture factory. Toyota is also considering the plant as a Prius production site after shelving plans to make the gasoline-electric car in Mississippi, two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg earlier this month.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors' plan to emerge from bankruptcy, with a lot of help from the federal government, has been approved by a federal judge.

Judge Robert Gerber gave his approval late Sunday after three days of hearings last week, saying it "is the only available means to preserve the continuation of GM's business."

Under the plan, the Detroit-based automaker, which filed for court protection on June 1, creates a new company and sheds crushing debt and expensive contracts.

Under the plan, which was worked out between the struggling company and the Obama administration, U.S. taxpayers end up owning 60% of the "new GM," with other stakes held by Canadian governments, bondholders and the United Auto Workers union.

Holders of $27 billion in GM (GMGMQ) bonds get stock in the reorganized company, as will a union-controlled trust fund that will take stock rather than the $20 billion in cash it had been owed to pay future retiree health care costs. Those 650,000 retirees will have their coverage reduced.

But the U.S. Treasury had conditioned its aid on approval of a bankruptcy plan by July 10, and Gerber addressed that in his ruling.

"GM cannot survive with its continuing losses and associated loss of liquidity, and without the governmental funding that will expire in matter of days," Gerber said in the decision.

Pared down: GM plans to close more than a dozen factories, drop U.S. brands and shut down up to 40% of its network of 6,000 dealerships.

A successful and swift move through bankruptcy was crucial to GM's restructuring and a key test of the Obama administration's efforts to rescue GM and Chrysler.

Chrysler's bankruptcy was approved on June 1, just hours before GM entered Chapter 11. An attempt by creditors to block the Chrysler bankruptcy was turned back by the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Friday, in a move that could smooth its restructuring, GM filed documents in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York saying that it had agreed to accept legal responsibility, post-bankruptcy, for drivers who are injured by vehicle defects in old cars.