Sweden/Netherlands
Dagens Nyheter, 27 January 2010

Spyker nails Saab

Published on 27 January 2010 at 14:43
Dagens Nyheter, 27 January 2010

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*"*Saab Automobiles now has to learn to fly on its own," asserts Dagens Nyheter. The Swedish carmaker has just been sold by America's General Motors to the Dutch company, Spyker Cars, for the modest sum of 52 million euros (plus 231.5 million euros in preferential shares). Although the company, which employs 3,400 people worldwide, was placed in receivership on January 8th, its CEO, Jan-Åke Jonsson, is now predicting that sales will return to profit by 2012. Founded in 2003, Spyker produces 40 luxury sports cars par year (Saab sold 93,000 units in 2008), and it has experienced "scandals, poor turnover and conflicts between board members," explains Dutch daily, Trouw. At the same time the European Commission is going to study the 400-million-euro loan requested of the European Investment Bank by Saab, for which the Swedish government provided guarantees. De Volkskrant cautions that it is not yet a done deal and that "should Saab-Spyker not make it, the tab will have to be picked up by the Swedish taxpayer."

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