Saab bidder Brightwell Holdings says with some “minor adjustements,” production could restart immediately in Trollhattan, should its pitch for the bankrupt automaker be successful.
Brightwell’s confidence stems from a whirlwind series of trips that have taken in the UK, Turkey and the US, with a return visit to Sweden slated for next week.
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The Turkish private equity company has already travelled once to Sweden to meet Saab’s receivers, handling what are thought to be up to five bids from Brightwell, Chinese manufacturer Youngman and Indian operation, Mahindra & Mahindra among others.
Reports in Sweden however, indicate Youngman’s bid has been rejected by the receivers, although lawyers for the Chinese operation were not immediately available for comment in Stockholm.
“The factory in Trollhattan is a very state-of-the-art operation,” Brightwell Holdings partner Zamier Ahmed told just-auto. “With some minor adjustments, we could start production immediately. Scale is something we will make a start on if we are successful with our bid.
“Our engineering team is more than satisfied with what exists in the plant – [they] have reviewed the installation. We would like to provide the current market demand for cars and to meet the requirements of dealers around the world.”
Brightwell was also in Detroit last week in a bid to thrash out any future licencing agreement with former Saab owner, General Motors, which effectively scuppered Youngman’s previous bid, raising objections to technology and control transfer issues.
“We have been to Detroit – I saw people connected with the Saab project,” said Ahmed. “I would love to go into detail, but really, we are so close to a conclusion to the entire Saab scenario, it would be inappropriate and in deference to the Non Disclosure Agreement, to discuss [it].
“I am very, very confident if our bid is accepted, we will be in a position to ramp up production according to the plan.”
Ahmed last week told just-auto he would be making an imminent statement on the future of engineering at Saab, adding today (3 February) he was in “detailed dialogue” with many former senior management staff as well as previous Saab CEO, Victor Muller.
The Turkish company has visited Saab’s Trollhattan home in Western Sweden and pronounced itself satisfied with the level of the facilities there. However, any move by Brightwell or the other bidders to retain engineers for example, may have to be made quickly as the former near-4,000 employees have been actively seeking alternative work for some weeks.
