Geely Automobile Holdings, a unit of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., said Thursday it has no interest in acquiring Swedish car maker Saab Automobile in response to a newspaper report on the matter.
Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported early Thursday, citing an unnamed source, that China’s Zhejiang Geely, which owns Swedish car brand Volvo, has shown “genuine interest” in Saab AB (SAABF) and approached the lawyer in charge of Saab’s restructuring.
“We have no interest in acquiring Saab,” said Lawrence Ang, executive director of Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile, without elaborating.
China’s Zhejiang Geely couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The report comes at a time when the carmaker’s Chinese partner Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. is reportedly late with 640 million Swedish kronor ($93.80 million) of promised payments to Saab, the newspaper said, citing a person with close insight into Saab’s restructuring.
A Swedish appeals court in September granted Saab Automobile, which is owned by Dutch company Swedish Automobile N.V. (SWAN.AE), three months of creditor protection while it restructures its operations.
Via: FOX.
Hard to see things shaping up for poor old Saab. Despite the 3 months creditor protection, and what with all the delays by the Chinese, it would appear that the company will go the same way as Rover did. Fast forward a few months from now, and the Chinese will be circling the remains of Saab like vultures, seeking to pick off whatever remains for a bargain price and without the need to pump their cash into unsustainable Swedish factories or worker pension schemes. No doubt, after all the tooling has made its way east, the Chinese will love the new Saab 9-5, or whatever it will be called then, but we in the west will never see it again.