GM's sale of Saab collapses; now what?

Posted Nov 24th 2009 5:20PM by Brian White
Filed under: Deals, General Motors (GM)

It looks like General Motors won't be unloading SAAB to Swedish company Koenigsegg Group, the automaker announced just a while ago. GM CEO Fritz Henderson expressed disappointment, saying "we're obviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the SAAB purchase... given the sudden change in direction, we will take the next several days to assess the situation and will advise on the next steps next week."

Who else could be interested in buying SAAB? GM's situation with Opel isn't going well either, so GM is clearly having issues unloading non-core automotive assets. Christian von Koenigsegg of the Koenigsegg Group indicated that time was the cause of the deal's collapse, stating "delays in closing this acquisition have resulted in risks and uncertainties that prevent us from successfully implementing the new SAAB Automobile business plan."

SAAB would have been a natural fit for Koenigsegg, a small sports-oriented automaker based on SAAB's own Sweden. Reports were that the deal was in the area of $500 million -- really just a pittance compared to GM's $912 million writedown of SAAB's assets earlier this year.

So, now what? Hummer is being sold to a Chinese outfit, Pontiac is shutting down, Opel will remain part of GM after much deliberation and now SAAB isn't going anywhere fast. SAAB only sold 7,441 vehicles in the U.S. this year, which is insignificant but important since 20% of SAAB's sales occur in the U.S.

Tags: General Motors, GeneralMotors, GM, Saab, Saab sale, SaabSale