GM had four brands to sell a few months ago:
- Saab
- Hummer
- Saturn
- Opel
All four have found buyers, but only two of those purchases and deals look to be reasonably solid at the moment – Saturn and Saab.
The deal for Hummer has hit a rather massive roadblock in the form of the Chinese government. BBC Radio reported that the government is frowning on the deal due to the nature of Hummer vehicle conflicting with the direction that they want Chinese companies to move in. The buyer, Tengzhong, say they’re sill on the case and negotiating with both GM and the Chinese authorities.
The deal for Opel appears to be far from done, with GM going as far as signing tentative agreements with both RHJ and Beijing Automotive just in case the deal with Magna falls over.
The Saturn deal looks like a solid one, with Roger Penske acquiring some prime dealerships with a pretty open field of vehicles that he can stock in them.
Of course, the deal for Saab is ongoing, but looking solid from where I stand. There are questions over finance, but I believe that the people involved are going to use their considerable energy and ideas to make sure this deal gets done.
We’ve already uncovered one of the legal minds involved with the process – Pranav Trivedi – who has extensive experience dealing with Russian business deals. That would indicate that there’s some Russian connections involved with this deal.
Karen spotted and article on the news wires today that mentions another of the legal team: Lynn Heistand. Like Trivedi, Heistand works from Skadden’s London office and she is mentioned in the AMLaw Daily site as their Dealmaker of the Week, for working concurrently on the Koenigsegg-Saab deal and a deal for Nortel Networks, being acquired by Nokia Siemens.
A weekly award from a blog is not necessarily worth scrapbooking, but her CV makes for some good reading and it’s just more reassurance that there are some clued-in minds working on this.
Related posts:
That Opel blurb...
{ 14 comments }
If the Chinese don’t permit the Hummer deal to take place, how could Beijing Automotive do any better if Magna falls over on the Opel deal?
Quite right. If they had been offical PR photos with an embargo, that would be you done for. But they are not.
You did us good- as usual – glad they are back up- although did you know that Auto Motor and Sport in Sweden also reduced the size at Saab’s request- after lifting them off this site?
Rgds to Mr Economy driver
I would think the main Russian connection to Saab deal is that Pranav Trivedi worked on the Vimpelcom IPO and must know Fabela. Trivedi works in international corporate finance and cross-border transactions, and is fluent in Russian and Gujarati (Gandhi’s first language)
N. Lynn Hiestand (correct spelling) is senior to Trivedi in Skadden’s London cross-border restructuring practice, and brings bankruptcy expertise to the team.
As to the Hummer snag, I would wait and see if Tengzhong can convince the Chinese government that Hummer hybrid technology can make a difference. Meanwhile, GM announced Hummer production site Shreveport, LA to close in 2012. The media likes to get hysterical over snippets about Chinese business deals.
Kind of surprised that the Australian media is not yet making a fuss over what happens to Holden once they lose their Pontiac (GM brand destined to just disappear) exports. Holden seems about same size as Saab.
The Opel deal is such that I start thinking of a “three men walk into a bar” joke. Just not sure who the three men are, but Merkel probably wishes they all would just get on with it. Theoretically, GM could stall the Opel deal until GM NA emerges from Ch11, and suddenly owns all of Opel again…
Welcome back. No new Saab news today.
Maybe not so solid… Maudolof is back again
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/241115/
“GM could stall the Opel deal until GM NA emerges from Ch11, and suddenly owns all of Opel again” – Interesting idea. I don’t see a lot of evidence that’s NOT what they’re doing–can’t imagine they really want to lose Opel.
I saw a couple of G8′s on the street here in Atlanta last week, and was wondering how long until it’s called the Holden G8 with a new grille. I assume even the new GM will have a hard time losing models they like. remember this is the company known to release new models and continue to build the old ones under a different name. (for example, old malibu became ‘chevy classic’, stayed in the market competing with the new one…talk about crowding your own market.)
As far as the hummer deal goes, I always thought GM’s treatment of that brand was much more lame than their treatment of saab. they could have focused on the off-road nature of the vehicle and designed a nice range of bulky rugged cars meant for off-roading in style (imagine a wide off-road nissan cube, or an open-air H3), but instead focused on the street and made themselves into a caricature. They rapidly devolved into a punchline, but they didn’t have to.
I was never a hummer fan, but I can’t help but see that whole adventure as nothing but a series of missed opportunities due to lack of creativity.
Ron +1 on Hummer targeted for off-road in all those places where the roads are bad or non-existent, like most of Western China, Siberia, Central Asia, and parts of Africa: all places where Tzengzhong currently markets their heavy equipment. Kind of what I was thinking Tengzhong has in mind, plus that hybrid prototype that changes the mileage.
My thought Opel is now a GM stall is partly because Magna is not happy that GM wants to retain a future buy-back. GM never wanted to let go of Opel.
Sberbank’s public position on their role is even more confidence destroying than Maud + Lutz. Then add in this view of current state of GAZ factory in Nizhny Novgorod (same size as Trollhattan – best of luck to Bo Andersson on turning GAZ around!):
“Why GAZ Is Pinning Its Hopes on Opel ” By Matthias Schepp in Friday’s Der Spiegel English edition:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,632375,00.html
Ok, for fun, The Herald in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, has a lifestyle fantasy triggered by the global economic crisis that includes a K-egg CCX http://www.weekendpost.co.za/lifestyle/food/article.aspx?id=438136
BTW, “pulling a Penske” will be the phrase that emerges from this global auto mash-up. At some point, everyone will want to “pull a Penske” instead of having to actually assemble autos.
Otherwise, no new news about Saab or K-egg or Eker or CvK today is good news.
Enjoy the weekend!
@ Markac Great question.
I would think GM is in chaos and no decisions must be the rule in RenCen. Looks like China has no private companies – all still under state control.
Never thought about GM wanting to keep Opel. That deal is a mess and GM seems to be playing games with sharing future technology. Penske is making the distribution plan and will rely on contract manufacturing – revolutionary for the car biz. Good dealers in good locations.
With all this going on, I wonder how much time GM has to spend on the sale of Saab. Like Opel, I think Saab needs long term access to GM technology to survive. I hope they aren’t playing the same games with Saab. I wonder if Saab will need long term tech agreements with both Opel and GM? That could complicate things.
@ Etienne I read the Maud comments not to say the buyer doesn’t need the money, but rather she hasn’t seen how much the buyer is putting in to get the loans.
@ Karen You have me convinced K-Segg plans to invest heavily but am curious that the Gov’t says they know no details yet.
What do I know, but it seems that if SaabsUnited was on the Saab payroll, they would be in a much better position to control photo releases on the net.
Does anyone have a clue why Saab’s websites for Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, France and maybe more are down since hours?
An update about the new 9-5 seems unlikely at least to me …
Cheers,
Ben
None, you are most gracious. GM was forced to do Opel deal in order to file Ch11 and had no money to keep Opel going at that point.
am still casting the Cargine team of Urban Carlson, Mats Hedman and Anders Höglund – see photo at: http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/innovation/forskning_utveckling/article400466.ece
I still think Cargine is K-egg GroupAB’s answer to the Saab-GM divorce.
How long for K-egg Group AB to synergize Cargine with Saab? yes
The very long and technical comment string on this article from August 2008 is fascinating because Cargine’s Mats Hedman answers and invites ever more questions, though google trans leaves most of the comment string in Swedish. Hedman says Cargine also has hybrid electric “bagage”.
Dr. Ludwig Brann is leading patent attorney in Sweden, and Brann is so far impressed with Cargine:
http://www.brann.se/en/company/References/Referens_1/
really signing off for today…
Agreed, None. Luckily Saab is much more insignificant to GM tan Opel is, which hopefully means less obstacles.
The Hummer deal will go through as soon as the proper bureaucrats are ‘convinced’ (cough*bribed*cough). It’s just part of the cost of doing business in this part of the world.
Penske-Saturn will come back to haunt GM, as it will provide a nearly perfect access point for marques entering the U.S. market (PSA, Koreans, even the Chinese…)
Opel is, well, mucked up…
As far as access to GM technology, I think Saab contributed far more to GM than the other way around. The only thing Saab will really need is chassis and engines for the transition – no more than 4 years. After that they need to cut all ties to GM.
Why would GM NOW be trying to stall on the Opel deal? Whilst reading about U.S. politics, an ad for Honda’s FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell car invited my attention, as I suddenly wondered ‘whatever happened to hydrogen fuel cells?’
(BTW, note to Saab, Honda has a highly functional website that my painfully slow dial-up can navigate very nicely thank you.)
Finally, I googled ‘hydrogen fuel cell Saab’, which led me to Foreign Policy journal, so maybe, in the last few weeks, someone read Jamie Kitman in the May/June issue of Foreign Policy? Kitman is a lawyer who is also “New York bureau chief of Automobile Magazine and U.S. editor of Britain’s Top Gear.” (begging the question why Kitman is not on the U.S. auto task force)
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4974
Kitman zeroes in on Opel’s engineering:
“…Opel has similarly been in the driver’s seat for much of GM’s forward-thinking engineering in the area of alternative — hybrid, hydrogen fuel cell, and battery electric — powertrains. Indeed, America’s love affair with GM’s awesome Corvettes and fast Cadillacs notwithstanding, Opel and its engineering team, forged in the crucible of the hypercompetitive European market, which has long placed a premium on efficiency, is today overall the best, most exciting part of GM. So why give it up?
…
Excise the Opel-derived Chevrolet Malibu and much of the suddenly excellent Saturn range (Opels in all but name), and you’ve deleted the best mainstream cars GM offers in the United States. Take Opel out of the mix and you’ve suddenly charged its North American engineering team with building the cars of the future. Arguably the least relevant of all GM’s engineering outposts, these are the people who — when they weren’t building big pickups and leviathan SUVs — gave us the TrailBlazer and the execrable Pontiac Aztek. Handing them the keys to our company’s future could well make success unattainable.
…”
yes, others have mentioned this, but the deciders in D.C. actually read Foreign Policy journal. totally
Let me know when Ladbroke’s starts posting odds on Opel’s ownership as of year-end, 2009.
As to hydrogen fuel cells – yes, cost too high, infrastructure issue, etc. but Honda, Toyota, Benz, VW, Ford, and GM (through Suzuki) have it on their timelines for 2015.
hard to imagine how ANY auto deals get done when you read about VW and Porsche, and THOSE CEOs ARE ACTUALLY COUSINS. VW just gave Porsche less than 24 hours to take their seat at the children’s table during family dinner.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/business/global/29iht-porsche.html?hp
My bet is the cone of silence on K-Saab will no doubt continue for another week.
Enjoy the silence.
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