Now that the dust is settling, a much clearer picture of the agreement between Spyker and Pang Da is emerging. As we know, Pang Da (or Pangda as it is sometimes referred to) is the largest vehicle distributor in China comprising over 1,100 dealers which specialize in sales and service of over 49 brands. This includes many of Saab’s direct competitors, including Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Subaru, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai. The first leg of the deal involves a €30 million purchase of 1,300 Saabs. The second leg marks a new direction for the group, and gives them an interest in promoting Saab above all the other brands they sell, a seat on the soon to be renamed Swedish Automobile’s board. What’s interesting to note is that in only one day, they recouped their entire stated investment and then some, as their shares today rose 4.1% on the Shanghai Composite Index, outperforming the market. It’s a sign of confidence in the deal and the investor confidence is a way of showing regulatory bodies that the private sector believes in the deal.
There have been a number of editorials written in the last 24 hours, most explaining why they think this deal not only makes sense, but is a better arrangement than the Hawtai deal. Of course there’s others, namely from a guy named Bertel Schmitt from thetruthaboutcars (who freely admits his initials spell BS), who is so convinced of his facts that he saw it to write two editorials about Saab’s new partnership. So in order to understand what the facts are, let’s break down the situation using facts we have heard from first person sources, namely Victor Muller himself.