Further details are expected to emerge tomorrow (28 February) from Saab’s receivers concerning potential purchasers of the bankrupt automaker, with Volvo confirming its interest in the automaker’s parts and tooling.
The receivers at Wistrand in Gothenburg are due to outline what progress has been made in their quest to find a buyer for the manufacturer, although fellow-Swedish company, Volvo, has expressed an interest in acquiring parts and machinery.
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Volvo has already told just-auto it is continuing its recruitment process involving some ex-Saab employees, although it stressed it was not targeting the bankrupt manufacturer’s engineers specifically.
There are also several other potential buyers of Saab, with Turkish private equity company, Brightwell Holdings and Chinese manufacturer, Youngman, as well as Mahindra & Mahindra, thought to be interested.
“There is a press conference tomorrow…where they comment on the status of the whole thing,” a Volvo spokesman in Sweden told just-auto.
“What we have said is there are assets in the bankrupt estate that are of interest. We are talking about machinery, test equipment, tools, et cetera, but if we have put in a bid for this or not, it is up to the receivers to comment.”
Any bid by Volvo for tools and machinery may have to be processed through the Swedish government as its National Debt Office (SNDO) has pledges in Saab’s parts business and tool manufacture.
A loan guarantee of US$324m by the SNDO was recently repaid to the European Investment Bank, with the government noting it should be able to recoup that money through a tools and parts sale.
