The Save Saab rally in Detroit today saw a great outcome for Saab with plenty of positive press coverage that will keep a spotlight on GM.
Those die-hards aren’t the only ones with Detroit on their travel schedule, however.
Reuters reports:
STOCKHOLM, Jan 5 (Reuters) –
A delegation from the Swedish government will meet with General Motors [GM.UL] next week in the United States to discuss the future of loss-making car unit Saab, Sweden’s national news agency said on Tuesday.
Representatives from Sweden’s finance and industry ministries will meet in Detroit with Saab parent GM and Ford (F.N), currently in the process of selling its Swedish car unit Volvo Cars.
“As we understand it, GM has not closed the door to a sale (of Saab), even if the official line is a wind-down,” state secretary Joran Hagglund said.
“We want to make totally sure they (GM) have all the information they need.”
As mentioned previously, there is more going on with the Swedish government that we know publicly and it’s incredibly encouraging to hear that Joran Hagglund’s heading back over there during the Detroit Motor Show.
I’d love to get a look inside Joran Hagglund’s briefcase to see what “all the information” looks like 🙂
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Speaking of the Detroit show….. Saab won’t have a stand there, as many of you know. But they will make an impact in another way. I can’t pre-empt the official announcement, but the Swedish government won’t be the only party interested in Saab to be in Detroit next week.
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UPDATE:
Here’s another article, translated from the original Swedish by Viking. It gives a little more information.
A delegation from the Swedish government is going to Detroit to meet with the leaders of GM and Ford in the beginning of next week. On the agenda: The futures of SAAB and Volvo.
The meeting will take place in connection with the international auto show in Detroit. From Sweden representatives from both the finance and enterprise departments will participate.It’s basically the same people that met with GM before their board meeting in December. Then SAAB was given a month to find a new owner but already on the 18th of December, GM stated that SAAB would be wound down.
“From what we understand GM hasn’t totally shut the door for a sale even if the official line is a wind-down. Now we will make sure they have all the information they need, so for example there should be no misunderstandings regarding the EIB process” says Joran Hägglund, secretary of the enterprise department to Swedish news agency TT.
TT: Will the government push for a sale of SAAB rather than a wind down? “We want to be sure that the buyers are serious. Even we can’t defend a sale of SAAB at any cost. It has to be good for SAAB” says Joran Hägglund.
To know if there is a buyer who has both a long term interest and financial strength Joran Hägglund wants to wait for the final bids that GM will receive after this Wednesday.
With Ford the government will discuss the planned sale of Volvo to Geely.
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