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From Tuesday's NY Times Business, 4 hours ago (about 5 pm PST):
DETROIT — The head of the Dutch carmaker trying to buy Saab said Tuesday that the company had the money to make a deal and that one was still possible even though General Motors had started to shutdown the Swedish carmaker.
“They are considering offers very, very seriously,” Victor Muller, the chief executive of Spyker Cars, said. “I’m not that concerned about all these steps that are being taken. It’s my job to reverse that decision and make sure that Saab is indeed saved.”
So far G.M. has resisted Spyker’s bids and last week began what it described as an “orderly wind-down” of Saab. An earlier deal to sell Saab to a Swedish company, Koenigsegg Group, fell apart in November.
Nick Reilly, the head of G.M.’s European operations, said Tuesday that the automaker would make a final decision by next month, but that a sale appeared unlikely.
“In our plans, we are winding down Saab regrettably,” Mr. Reilly said at the Detroit auto show. “The longer it carries on as we start to wind it down, the more difficult it is for somebody to come along and buy it.”
Mr. Reilly said that G.M. had been trying to sell Saab for a year and that no buyer had presented a “feasible business plan.”
But Mr. Muller, speaking during a conference in Detroit hosted by the trade publication Automotive News, said Spyker has given G.M. what it has asked for.
“We have shown Mr. Whitacre the money,” Mr. Muller said, referring to G.M.’s chairman and chief executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr.
Mr. Muller said Spyker’s business plan for the brand “clearly shows that Saab, of course having sufficient sales, can be a very sustainable and profitable company.”
“Our deadline is days, not weeks,” Mr. Muller told reporters after his speech.
Spyker, founded in 2000, makes sports cars that sell for more than $200,000. It sold 43 in 2008; Saab sold more than 93,000.
Mr. Muller said he wanted to buy Saab so he can return it to prominence and to help Spyker gain a wider distribution network and reduce costs. He said Saab became a perennial money-loser in its 20 years with G.M. because it borrowed designs from the company’s other brands rather than staying true to its unique heritage.
“Saab is a brand which has proven to have the most loyal following in the automotive world,” he said. “If anything has gone wrong, it’s that Saab has lost its own DNA, to some extent. People were interested in buying a Saab Saab, not an Opel Saab. The Saab buyers, if they wanted to buy an Opel, they would have bought an Opel.”
He added, “Its customers just couldn’t identify any more with the Saab product.”
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