By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com
November 24, 2009
General Motors is not only having a hard time selling cars, it's having a hard time selling car brands. The latest deal to fall through is the sale of Saab to Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg Group AB. GM CEO Fritz Henderson said he was "very disappointed" at the news.
"Given the sudden change in direction, we will take the next several days to assess the situation and will advise on the next steps next week," Henderson said in a statement.
GM thought it had unloaded its troubled Saturn brand on auto magnate Roger Penske earlier this year but Penske backed out Sept. 30 and GM drove a stake through Saturn's heart almost immediately.
Penske backed away from the Saturn deal after he was unable to secure an agreement under which Renault SA would have manufactured cars under the Saturn brand. There's no immediate word on what led Koenigsegg to nix the Saab purchase.
At last word, GM's sale of the Hummer to a Chinese company was still on track, as is its shutdown of its Pontiac brand. Its sale of European brand Opel to a Canadian company was abruptly canceled when GM decided it would keep Opel.
Koenigsegg a highly-respected but small manufacturer of high-performance cars, ran into problems trying to finance the Saab purchase. The Swedish government had been dragging its feet on a $600 million loan and Koenigsegg had been trying to arrange back-up financing from Chinese sources.
There were no other known bidders for Saab and industry insiders expect the iconic Swedish brand to follow Saturn and Pontiac into the history books.
GM is under heavy pressure to improve the performance of its four core brands -- Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC -- and likely won't want to devote any more resources to Saab. With GM's regular monthly board meeting scheduled for Tuesday in Detroit, management will likely want to move quickly, analysts said.
