GM cancels deadline for bids on Swedish car maker Saab

• Source: Shanghai Daily
• [08:27 December 31 2009]
• Comments

General Motors has dropped a December 31 deadline for bids for its Swedish car brand Saab, which will restart some production lines next month after a shutdown, Saab said yesterday.

GM had given itself to the end of this month to consider bids for loss-making Saab while continuing a process to wind down the company, which has drawn interest from Dutch luxury car maker Spyker Cars and others.

"We are preparing the wind-down process. At the same time we are open to options, to bids that come in. Therefore the deadline has also been dropped," Saab spokesman Eric Geers.

A spokesman for GM in Europe said he had no information on the deadline being canceled and thus could not comment immediately.

The Swedish government has said it would allot 542 million Swedish crowns ($75 million) to measures, mainly for education and job schemes, to help deal with the thousands of jobs set to disappear if Saab shuts down.

Abandoning the 60-year-old Swedish auto brand would eliminate 3,400 jobs in Sweden and hit 1,100 Saab dealers.

In the meantime, Saab will restart some production lines again in January for its new 9-5 model and Cabrio, Geers said.

"We have the orders and we have to deliver them as usual. We also have the orders for the 9-3 and others. The factory has to continue again," Geers said.

GM was still in talks with potential bidders but Geers only named Spyker Cars and declined to talk about other parties.

Spyker was not immediately available to comment.

Loss-making Spyker has been keen to buy Saab to benefit from its technical resources and its distribution network.

Spyker, which is backed by Russian and Arabic investors, lodged a renewed fast-track offer to buy Saab on December 20.