Saab sold on to Pangda and Youngman for 100 Million Euro

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It seems that Saab is now a Chinese company along with Volvo. Pangda and Youngman have taken over Saab in its entirety and it will become part of the Pangda-Youngman empire. The two companies are set to spend 100 million Euro on the company, which of course has to receive approval from the National Development and Reform Council (NDRC) before any more monies can be sent out of the country, this means Youngman-Pangda will have to be very quick about submitting a business plan and proposal to the Central Govt in China.

From Bloomberg:

Saab Automobile’s parent announced a deal to sell the Swedish carmaker to two Chinese companies in an effort to save the cash-strapped automaker from bankruptcy.

Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. and Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. will purchase Saab for 100 million euros ($142 million), parent Swedish Automobile NV said in a statement today. The memorandum of understanding is valid until Nov. 15.

Saab, which has produced few cars since it first halted production in March because of a lack of money, avoided bankruptcy last month after a Swedish court granted the carmaker protection from creditors. Youngman and Pang Da had originally agreed to take a majority stake in Swedish Automobile before that agreement fell apart earlier this month.

“This is fantastic news,” Eric Geers, a Saab spokesman said in an interview. “Now we’re hoping for a stable period where we can start thinking about making cars again.”

Swedish Automobile surged as much as 36 cents, or 46 percent, to 1.14 euros and was up 33 percent as of 10:34 a.m. in Amsterdam trading. The stock has fallen 70 percent in 2011, valuing the Zeewolde, Netherlands-based company at 28.6 million euros.

Saab filed for protection from creditors in September, three months after Pang Da and Youngman agreed to buy a combined 53.9 percent stake in Swedish Automobile for 245 million euros.

Attorney Guy Lofalk, Saab’s court-appointed administrator, had applied to the Vaenersborg District Court in Sweden to terminate the restructuring of the carmaker. Lofalk has now withdrawn that request pending a final sale of the automaker, Saab said today.

Saab will discuss payment and delivery terms with suppliers with the aim to restart production “as soon as possible,” Geers said by phone.

The agreement must be approved by Chinese regulators, the Swedish government, the European Investment Bank and General Motors Co. (GM), Saab’s former owner.

Now how fast do Pangda-Youngman have to be to get that funding in place? Local.se gives us the picture:

After setting a price tag nearly five times higher, Saab’s charismatic chief executive Victor Muller told the TT news agency Friday he was “thrilled.”

“Now the company’s future is really secured. The future looks very bright now,” he said

“We have the deepest pockets onboard now ensuring that the company will blossom, so I’m thrilled,” he added.

Swan said Friday its memorandum of understanding with the two Chinese firms was now “valid until November 15 of this year, provided Saab Automobile stays in reorganisation.”

So they have 18 days to get money and approval in places, and if we count working days that’s only 15 or so days. Now Pangda-Youngman face some issues if they want to produce Saab’s in China, of course the architecture used underneath the 9-3 and 9-5 is used by SAIC in China for the Buick platforms and Beijing Auto are about to use the older versions of the 9-3 and 9-5 platforms for their own cars, so can the two successfully navigate the halls of politics in Beijing to bring this deal down to the ground?

Victor Muller maybe happy with this 100 million Euro sale, which is 300 million less than what Spyker cars paid for it over a year ago, but the final results of the sale reside in different hands. The Chinese government has made no secret about the fact that they want the market to consolidate and push more manufacturers together rather than introduce more manufacturers to the market, Youngman are considered rather small in the Chinese automotive industry and are a bus manufacturer by trade, will they have the necessary clout to pull off the political smooching to get this deal inked off and will GM even go for the idea? Reuters points to some issues:

The owner of Swedish car maker Saab will hold talks with U.S. auto maker General Motors (GM.N) to convince it of the merits of a sale of Saab to Chinese investors, it said on Friday.

General Motors has preference shares in Saab, supplies it with parts and is a creditor. Its permission for the planned sale of Saab to China’s Pang Da Automobile Trade Co (601258.SS) and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co for 100 million euros is needed, along with that of the Chinese authorities and the European Investment Bank, which has lent money to Saab.

Swedish Automobile chief executive Victor Muller, whose company is selling Saab, said he had so far only had a “brief dialogue” with GM about the planned sale, but hoped to convince them of the benefits of it.

“It is way too early to make a statement about whether this is going to be easy or not,” he added.

Will GM risk its relationship with SAIC to let Youngman-Pangda play car maker with technology related to the Buick line up in China? It seems like Victor, Pang Qing Nian and Pang Qing Hua are going to have to come up with a stellar PPT when they meet with GM and the Chinese government.