Tiny Automaker Renews Offer for Saab

Tiny Automaker Renews Offer for Saab
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: December 20, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/business/global/21saab.html?ref=global-home


PARIS — Spyker Cars, the tiny Dutch automaker whose last-ditch bid for Saab was rejected Friday by General Motors, came back Sunday with a renewed offer for the struggling Swedish icon, which G.M. has said it plans to shut down.

A spokesman for G.M. reacted cautiously to Spyker’s new offer, which many industry insiders consider a long shot. However, he said other potential buyers had expressed interest in Saab since Friday’s announcement.

“We continue to wind down Saab but during that process we’ve received several expressions of interest and we evaluate these offers as they come, but beyond that we’re not making any comment,” said Chris Preuss, the G.M. spokesman.

G.M. said Friday that it didn’t think a deal could be concluded by its Dec. 31 deadline because of concerns about Spyker that arose during the final negotiations. G.M. said that left it no alternative but to begin winding down Saab’s operations in Trollhattan, Sweden.

Upping the ante Sunday, Victor Muller, the Spyker chief executive, said he had presented G.M. with an 11-point proposal that addressed the automaker’s concerns. He imposed a deadline of his own of 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Monday for G.M. to respond to its offer.

“Despite our collective 11th-hour set-back, we are returning to the table with a renewed offer that addresses every known issue brought to light during the initial negotiations and that has the full backing of the Saab Management,” Mr. Muller said in a statement.

Publicly, G.M. executives declined to identify their problems with Spyker, but several officials familiar with the negotiations said G.M. was troubled by Spyker’s reliance on Russian backers to finance the deal, as well as the fate of its proprietary technology under Spyker.

The biggest investor in Spyker is the Russian bank Convers Group, which is controlled by Alexander Antonov, a tycoon who was shot seven times and reportedly lost a finger in a failed assassination attempt in Moscow in March.

His son Vladimir, 34, is a top executive at Convers and chairman of Spyker.

In the first half of 2009, Spyker borrowed €11.6 million, or $16.6 million, from Bank Snoras, a Lithuanian bank also controlled by the Antonovs.

Another snag had been the question of whether Spyker could win a €400 million loan from the European Investment Bank that had been part of an earlier plan to sell Saab to Koenigsegg, a Swedish maker of high-end sports cars. That deal collapsed last month.

In his statement Sunday, Mr. Muller said Spyker, whose specialty sports cars retail for roughly a quarter-million dollars each, could complete the deal without the European Investment Bank’s help.

“The new offer eliminates the need for an E.I.B. loan approval prior to year-end, for example, which will allow the deal to be concluded within G.M.’s deadline,” he said.

“Our company motto is nulla tenaci invia est via — for the tenacious no road is impassable,” Mr. Muller added. “And we intend to remain true to that throughout these negotiations as we bid to secure Saab’s future and revive the company.”