It's Official: Koenigsegg Buying Saab

Well that was fast! Just yesterday it was reported that General Motors was planning to announce the sale of Saab to Swedish supercar manufacturer Koenigsegg within the week. Guess things worked out faster then they planned, because they dropped the announcement today.

Those reports about Koenigsegg, the letter of intent and all were right. The fact that Koenigsegg was a Swedish company was what helped them win out in the end. The new owner holds a firm belief in having Saab remain a Swedish manufacturer to it's core. I suspect this will make the Swedish government more apt to provide the brand with financing in the future, where as they might not have been as keen to do so with a foreign owner.

Like Saturn, GM will continue to provide powertrains and platforms to Saab for at least 5-6 years. That ensures they have a continued stake in seeing Saab succeed. I expect it will be sometime before Koenigsegg is ever able to develop mainstream vehicles itself, and that it will always need to tap into large economies of scale if it is ever to succeed and make a profit.

Let's not forget also that Saab is currently a loss-making brand right now. Koenigsegg needs to turn that around. To help Koenigsegg, $600 million is expected to be committed to the company by the European Investment Bank (EIB), backed by the Swedish government. Further financing comes from GM (!) and the Koenigsegg Group AB.

There is no mention of price for the brand anywhere, which makes me wonder whether or not Koenigsegg is taking Saab off GM's hands. I'm still so shocked though. Koenigsegg buying Saab! The company has around 50 employees! Obviously though it's not Koenigsegg alone, that would never be possible. Christian von Koenigsegg is quick to stress in interviews with Swedish newspapers that it is not tiny Koenigsegg that is "taking over" Saab. He says a financially strong consortium ("purchasing group") is what is purchasing the brand, and that group is being led by Koenigsegg.

Still pretty crazy though given Koenigsegg's size that it would be leading anything. I wish them all the best though, I hope they succeed fantastically. An excellent site for Saab information is Saabs United, a blog by Stephen Wade, former owner of Saab fan site Trollhattan Saab. I'm looking forward to see how the new company manages Saab, as well as the launch of the new 9-5! Long live Saab.