Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone and partner Genii Capital emerged as a rival to Dutch super-car maker Spyker Cars NV in efforts to buy Saab.
After two attempts to sell the 72-year-old Saab brand failed in the past two months, General Motors chief executive Ed Whitacre said on Wednesday the Detroit carmaker was proceeding with a decision to close Saab and that no qualified buyer had emerged.
Luxembourg-based private equity firm Genii Capital said it will bid for a majority stake in Saab together with Ecclestone. The firm, which agreed to acquire a majority stake in Renault SA's F1 team last month, is offering cash for Saab, said Lars Carlstroem, the Swedish investor who is working with Genii.
Spyker put in a revised offer before a 5 pm deadline in New York yesterday.
Forbes' 2009 list estimates Mr Ecclestone and his family's net worth at $3.7 billion.
"It's a good brand that has probably been neglected by the current owners," Mr Ecclestone (79) said in a phone interview. "We don't own it yet, so let's see what happens."
He declined to disclose any financing details.
Genii Capital said it will aggressively work towards a successful closing of the transaction.
Also planning a bid is a third group of investors, headed by former MAN SE chief executive Hakan Samuelsson and former Swedish minister Jan Nygren, Dagens Industri reported yesterday, without saying where it got the information.
Saab is scheduled to hold a board meeting today where it will examine if it can restart production January 11th after a four-week break, board member Haakan Danielsson said. Board members may also discuss new bids for Saab, he said.
Saab's board could be dissolved as early as today as the wind-down process begins, a person familiar with the matter said. Even so, GM could still decide to accept a bid, he said.
Negotiations to sell Saab to Spyker collapsed on December 18th and Spyker submitted a second
offer on December 20th, which it further revised yesterday.
"Now there's nothing more we can do, we just have to wait and see," Mr Muller said in an interview. "Whoever is the shepherd of Saab, the main thing is that it survives."
Genii plans to use former bidder Koenigsegg Group AB's Saab business plan and make the automaker profitable by 2012 with production of 105,000 vehicles a year, Mr Carlstroem said.
"It is a true opportunity and we're surprised that more investors haven't identified this opportunity," he said.
Saab is among four brands, along with Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer, being unloaded as GM focuses on
Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac in the US after its July 10th bankruptcy exit.
Swedish sports-car maker Koenigsegg, which had backing from Beijing Automotive Industry Holding, walked away from a deal to buy Saab in November. Beijing Auto paid $200 million to buy some car technologies from Saab to use in its own vehicles.
Saab sales in the US slumped 59 per cent to 8,680 vehicles last year. European deliveries through November also fell 59 per cent to 25,093 cars.
Bloomberg