Okay, so things didn’t go too well when GM tried to sell Saturn. Or Opel. Or, so far, HUMMER. And Saab itself has gone through its share of unsuccessful suitors, too. But it looks like General Motors has finally gotten lucky, putting together a deal that sells its Saab division to Spyker Cars, N.V.
Here’s the lowdown: General Motors gets about $74 million from Spyker, along with some $326 million in preferred shares of the new company—Saab Spyker—with everyone quick to point out that this translates into only 1 percent of the voting rights in the new entity. On the other hand, the stock deal is essentially payback for GM agreeing to remain a “partner” with Saab through the end of 2016. It’s not clear exactly what this “partnership” will entail, but the net result is that the General will have some sort of voice in Saab’s new plans for a while yet.
For Spyker, the deal will give less-expensive access to some of the resources that go into its current C8 exoticar and future models, more outlets at which to sell such vehicles and a steadier stream of revenue from Saab products. Speaking of which, the initial lineup looks like it will include the current Saab 9-3, the much-anticipated and completely redesigned Saab 9-5, and the nifty-looking Saab 9-4X crossover. Notably, even though the latter two vehicles didn’t make it into production before GM initially decided to wind Saab down, prototype testing continued anyway. As a result, it shouldn’t take much in terms of either time or money to restart production come this April, which is when Saab Spyker hopes to restart the factories.
As long as that date isn’t narrowed down to, say, April 1, I think this will be one Saab story that gets a happy ending.
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