Saab Definitely Undead. Or Not
Saab’s extended January 7th deadline came and went. Four groups handed in offers: Spyker put in its third bid. Luxembourg-based private equity group Genii Capital joined with Formula 1 tycoon Bernard Ecclestone and Hakan Samuelsson, former head of truckmaker MAN, in a bid. Wyoming-based Merbanco Inc., and a Swedish investor group also submitted proposals. Apparently, the proposals did not impress. Saab declared bankruptcy, for the second time in a year.
AlixPartners is quite at home at G.M. AlixPartners was the General’s aide when GM entered bankruptcy last summer. A top AlixPartners executive, Albert A. Koch, is supervising the dismantling of the G.M. operations that remain in Chapter 11, says the New York Times.
Stefan Loefven, the head of the Swedish IF Metall union which has a representative on Saab’s board, told Agence France Presse that Saab’s board has decided on Friday to put Saab in liquidation. Loeven is not happy with GM: “”It is irresponsible of GM as an owner to go in two directions, both pursuing the sale of Saab and the winding up.” Now, the Saab board had already declared bankruptcy a little less than a year ago, but the ghosts of Trollhättan continue to haunt.
Oh, the Swedish government has to approve the appointment of AlixPartners. Stay tuned for many more episodes.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Kudos on the new hearse also, is that a Swedish company conversion instead of the previously awful one that some readers had identified as British? Saab's time on earth is through, it is certainly less deserving of saving than Oldsmobile or Pontiac.
I am going to brood about SAAB for a long time. There is no substitute for me. Subaru just dosen't do it. :-(
"Four groups handed in offers..." The word "offers" needs an asterisk. Here's how these offers go: "GM, you give us Saab. You put cash on the hood (i.e. you absorb severance costs, you clean up the books beforehand). You stay involved, passing costs through to the US taxpayers. We don't give you a damn dime, ever. Our contribution is to solve your political problem." That's exactly how the dialogue went regarding Opel, which led directly to GM's "decision" to keep Opel.
tparkit: actually I thought it was GM's unrealistic conditions for intellectual property going forward that nixed the Saab deal with Koeningsegg, as well as Penske's deal for Saturn, or even the Opel deal (which they not-so-secretly wanted to keep all along). GM legal can kill anything under the weight of endless T&C's. These would be very complex deals under the best of circumstances, but absent any foreign government handouts GM seems to be doing little more than stalling while selling off or killing off pieces. It's a huge company run by a bureaucratic maze of legal and accounting. The engineers and plant personnel are good folks who work hard, many are even car guys! Someone has got to shake up the top floors of RenCen, Ed may be the guy but the quicksand already seems to be draggin him down.