FUTURE OF SAAB STILL IN DOUBT

At the time of writing, the future of Swedish car maker Saab hangs in the balance, following General Motors’ announcement in December that a potential sale to Dutch supercar manufacturer Spyker had fallen through.

GM has been seeking a buyer for its Swedish offshoot for several months, with none of the original expressions of interest reaching fruition. The American giant then announced that Saab would begin to be wound down by the end of 2009, a move that led to Spyker resubmitting a bid shortly before Christmas – following which GM extended the sale deadline from December 31 to January 7.
A rival bid for the company came from F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, in partnership with private investment company Genii Capital. But after the deadline passed, GM said it had selected restructuring group AlixPartners to supervise an ‘orderly’ winding down at Saab. We can only hope that this innovative Swedish company lives to see another day.