Automotive News have reported the following:
Spyker Cars NV is the only buyer under consideration for the Saab brand and is seeking to line up funding that will satisfy General Motors Co., a person with direct knowledge of the situation said……
……A Saab spokesman last week would only name Spyker as a candidate, although media reports have also pointed to Merbanco Inc., a Wyoming-based group.
In short, I believe that Merbanco are indeed most likely out of the running. If you want a level of assurance, I would place it at about 99%.
In taking this news in, we should all bear in mind what CJ from Merbanco wrote in comments recently:
If we can’t get a bankable commitment from the Sweden Government, we will not proceed. If the government will be supportive, we need ironclad assurances they will step up. We can fund operations until the EIB loan is in place but we won’t proceed without the assurances.
The Swedish government have been quite solid in their commitment that they couldn’t bankroll a new owner, but they could provide loan guarantees once an owner is selected.
I’ve been trying to contact CJ most of today about another matter, but have not been able to get a response, which is doesn’t bode well.
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Whether Merbanco’s probable withdrawal means that Spyker is the sole bidder remains to be seen. Merbanco were teamed up with a group of Swedish investors (which I’ve named ‘Sason’) and it remains to be seen if this group will submit a bid independently from Merbanco.
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One thing the AN article doesn’t mention, but that I’ve received notice of from Djup Strupe, is that Victor Muller has been invited to speak at Automotive News’ World Congress, an automotive convention held hot on the heels of the Detroit Auto Show. His name is not on the program yet, but I’ve been quite reliably informed.
The AN article linked above does say the following:
Spyker has until late Thursday to submit its revised bid, the source said today, and GM will probably issue a statement on Friday saying whether bids are still under consideration.
With that in mind, Muller’s presentation at that Global conference should be very interesting.
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