Monday, January 30, 2012
By Manoj Kumawat
Mahindra in race of acquisition of SAAB Cars
Indian homegrown SUV maker Mahindra is one of the firms that has put a bid for buying the bankrupt Swedish carmaker firm SAAB (Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget). The Swedish car maker has recently gone bankrupt and Mahindra is among the most interested single party for the buy out. The car maker has filed for bankruptcy in December last year. It is said that a Mahindra delegation has also visited the Trollhaettan based plant of SAAB in order to pursue talks.
The take over is seen as one of the major takeover by Mahindra however not quite as big as that of the Jaguar by Tata Motors. As per sources, Saab intends to sell all its operations to one major buyer and thus the deal will be bigger than expected. Saab officials have reportedly said that all of Saab will be sold to one single buyer and to whoever gives the most value. However, in the case of a failure of a single deal Saab could also be sold in piecemeal.
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Notably, Saab AB, the automobile division of Saab was acquired by General Motors in 1990 but after keeping it for twenty years the American brand sold it to Spyker Cars. Later on due to financial constraints, Saab had gone bankrupt and thus is the sale bid in place. Saab produces a range of cars including sedans, SUVs and crossovers. These include Saab 93 Sports sedan, Saab 93 Sports Combi, Saab 93 Convertible, Saab 93 X SUV and Saab 95 Sedan. Saab has a characteristic inclusion of ‘9’ in the nomenclature of its cars.
The bidders in the race include Chinese carmaker Youngman and Turkish private equity firm Brightwell Holdings besides others. If Mahindra is able to close the deal, Indian car industry can expect some of the models such as Saab 93 Sports sedan, Saab 93 Sports Combi, Saab 93 Convertible, Saab 93 X SUV to be launched in India as well.
