EoW September 2009

As noted by Ken Bensinger in the Chicago Tribune (17 th June), the sale of Saab to Koenigsegg will cause GM’s prominent role in Europe, the world’s largest car marketplace, to virtually disappear. The sale reduces GM’s presence in Europe to the Chevrolet brand, which represents less than 5% of all sales in the region. The Chevrolet unit is run by GM’s Korean subsidiary, Daewoo Auto & Technology. Dorothy Fabian – USA Editor

Automotive

With its sale of Saab to a Swedish car maker, General Motors all but exits the European market

General Motors Corp on 16 th June announced that it had found a buyer for Saab. The sale, to the Swedish car maker Koenigsegg

Group, relieves GM of the fourth and last of the units that retarded the struggl- ing Detroit giant’s downsizing effort, mandated by the White House. If all four transactions proceed as planned, GM could emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by the end of the third quarter. The largest piece of the GM European operations, Adam Opel, is going to a consortium of buyers led by the Canadian auto parts maker Magna International and including Sberbank, a Russian lender. Hummer is being acquired by a Chinese machinery manufacturer. Only Saturn will remain in Michigan, having been sold to the Penske Automotive Group whose chairman is one of the biggest automobile dealers in the US. Why Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co Ltd wants the notorious gas-guzzler Hummer is something of a mystery. A similar curiosity might attend the sale of Saab, except that this prestigious but underperforming brand has always tended to defy analysis. Saab sold just under 94,000 cars world- wide last year, principally in Sweden, Britain, and the American Northeast. According to Autodata Corp, through the first five months of this year only 4,607 Saabs were sold in the US, a 55% decline from sales during the same period of 2008. The company’s Swedish buyer, Koenigsegg, an unlisted company of just 45 employees based in Angelholm, turns out only a few high-performance cars per year, at a price of $1 million-plus apiece. General Motors will provide Saab with some parts and technology, and GM and Koenigsegg will jointly fund the rollout of some products in the pipeline. Saab will move production of its 9-5 models to a facility in Trollhattan, Sweden, from the plant in Rüsselsheim, Germany, where it now makes the car.

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EuroWire – September 2009