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Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. said it will shut the money-losing Saab unit after talks collapsed on a sale to Spyker Cars NV, the second failure in less than a month to keep the 72-year-old Swedish brand alive.
GM and Skyker, a Dutch maker of $235,000 sports cars, faced ?certain issues? that couldn?t be resolved, according to a GM statement today. Saab is expected to satisfy debts including supplier payments, and the unit will honor warranties and provide service and spare parts, GM said.
Closing Saab caps more than a month of reshuffling of GM?s European operations. On Nov. 3, the Detroit-based automaker reversed plans to sell the Opel unit and opted to keep it, and Koenigsegg Group AB backed out of a Saab purchase agreement three weeks later, creating an opening for Spyker.
?If you were a gambling man, you would have bet this deal would not close because none of the other deals have closed,? said Mike Tyndall, an analyst with Nomura Securities in London.
GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre said Dec. 15 that the Trollhaettan, Sweden-based unit would be shut unless he had a sales accord by month?s end.
?We were so incredibly close,? Spyker CEO Victor Muller said in a text message to Bloomberg News. ?I have no words.?
Spyker fell 33 cents, or 15 percent, to 1.86 euros at 3:59 p.m. on the Amsterdam exchange. The shares touched 1.62 euros earlier for the biggest intraday decline since Sept. 30, 2008.
?Complex Transaction?
?Despite the best efforts of all involved, it has become very clear that the due diligence required to complete this complex transaction could not be executed in a reasonable time,? GM Europe President Nick Reilly said in the statement. ?In order to maintain operations, Saab needed a quick resolution.?
Saab?s closing will be ?an orderly winddown,? he said, and ?not a bankruptcy or forced liquidation process.?
An agreement announced last week for the sale of Saab powertrain technology and tooling to Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Co. shouldn?t be affected by the shutdown plan, GM said.
Whitacre told reporters in Detroit this week that Spyker was the last bidder for Saab, which traces its roots to aircraft company Svenska Aeroplan AB, founded in 1937 to secure production of Swedish warplanes. The first car left the factory a decade later.
Sales, Jobs
GM bought half of Saab in 1990 and took full ownership in 2000. U.S. sales of Saab models tumbled 61 percent through this year?s first 11 months, and the biggest U.S. automaker identified the brand as one of four -- along with Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer -- it would shed to streamline operations.
Saab employs about 3,500 workers at its Trollhaettan plant, and its closing puts thousands more jobs in the region and among auto suppliers in Sweden at risk.
The Swedish government found out early today that the Saab deal collapsed and doesn?t know why, Industry Ministry spokesman Haakan Lind said in a phone interview. Industry Minister Maud Olofsson and State Secretary Joeran Haegglund, the government?s main liaison to the auto industry, visited Saab?s headquarters and plan a press conference at 4 p.m. local time, Lind said.
Spyker emerged as the front-runner to buy Saab this month. Spyker used Koenigsegg?s business plan in its bid, Muller said yesterday.
GM is focusing on the Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick brands in the U.S. Saturn is being wound down after a planned sale to Penske Automotive Group Inc. fell through in September. GM has agreed to sell Hummer to China?s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., pending regulatory approval.
To contact the reporters on this story: Katie Merx in Southfield, Michigan, at
[email protected] Kinnander in Stockholm at
[email protected].
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