General Motors has issued a robust defence of its position following yesterday’s (28 February) news that Turkish private equity company, Brightwell Holdings, had pulled out of its bid for bankrupt Saab.
Brightwell partner, Zamier Ahmed told just-auto from Turkey at his shock following what he claimed was GM “intransigence”, leading to the equity company pulling out from any Saab purchase, but the US manufacturer has defended its stance.
Go deeper with GlobalData
“GM alone took approximately a US$100m reserve hit for the first half of 2011 against Saab bad debts,” a GM spokesman told just-auto. “Licensing is not on the table. They wanted to discuss the licensing of GM technology with the 9-4X and we said we were not interested in discussing it.
“They approached us and sent letters – we responded saying we were not interested in having negotiations or discussions. We would not be producing the 9-4X or licensing technology for the 9-5 to anyone following the sale of Saab – we have not changed our position.”
Brightwell claims to have poured millions of euros into its bid for Saab with Ahmed maintaining General Motors has “no interest” in keeping Saab alive, a position with which the US automaker strongly takes issue.
“If someone were to acquire the [Saab] factory in Trollhattan and produce vehicles, including Saabs, it would not be an issue,” said the GM spokesman.
“But if someone tried to restart with GM technology, that is not going to happen.”
Saab’s future is currently in the hands of Swedish receivers in Gothenburg, who are evaluating a range of bids thought to include, among others, Chinese manufacturer, Youngman and Indian company, Mahindra & Mahindra, although details of any approach from the latter still remain sketchy.
