GENERAL MOTORS may sell parts of its Saab unit to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding, two people familiar with the talks over the future of the Swedish brand said.
A sale of assets, including production machinery, is among GM’s options, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.
GM directors will review the future of the Swedish unit today after Koenigsegg Group last week withdrew a joint bid with Beijing Auto. Beijing Auto plans to “move fast” on Saab to help improve its technology, president Wang Dazong said yesterday.
GM spurned an offer earlier this year from the Chinese carmaker for its Opel division, based in Ruesselsheim, Germany.
“It’s very difficult to see a future for Saab,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany.
Beijing Auto “is one of the potential candidates because Chinese manufacturers are looking for a foothold in Europe and need the distribution network, the technology and the brand”.
Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery agreed earlier this year to purchase GM’s Hummer sport-utility vehicle brand and Geely is in talks to buy Ford’s Volvo unit.
Saab is retooling its plant in Trollhaettan, Sweden, to begin production of the 9-5 sedan, the company’s first new model in seven years. The carmaker reported a 59 per cent slump in European sales and a 62 per cent drop in the US in the first 10 months of 2009.
“Technology and brand would be the most important and have the highest value for the company,” said Yale Zhang, a Shanghai-based director at auto consulting company CSM Asia. “Without that it would be illogical to buy assets such as machinery because it wouldn’t help the company much to develop its products.”
Sweden has ruled out taking over Saab and prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has said the government has no mandate to use taxpayers’ money to build cars.
Saab 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.
GM bought half of Saab in 1990 and took full ownership a decade later.
– Bloomberg