Saab Assets Sold to Asian Group

A Chinese-Japanese investment group has agreed to acquire the major assets of bankrupt Saab Automobile AB and plans to use them to make electric cars for the Chinese market. Financial details were not disclosed.

The consortium, National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB, made a bid for the carmaker last month. The group is 51% owned by Hong Kong-based National Modern Energy Holdings Ltd., a developer of alternative energy plants in China, and 49% owned by Japan's Sun Investment LLC, which invests in environmental technology.

NEVS says the deal doesn't require approvals from authorities in China or Japan. The parties aim to close the deal within a couple months.

The partners say Karl-Erling Trogen, a former executive at truckmaker AB Volvo, has been appointed chairman of NEVS. The CEO is Kai Johan Jiang, who owns much of National Modern Energy, a Chinese-born businessman with Swedish citizenship.

The new owners will acquire Saab Property AB, which owns the Saab's factory in Trollhattan, Sweden, the company's tooling and powertrain units and rights to the 9-3 compact car platform. They also will buy the unfinished PhoeniX scalable platform, which Saab was developing to underpin future midsize and compact cars and crossover vehicles.

Reports say NEVS continues to negotiate for rights to the Saab brand name, which is co-owned by Saab Automobile, truckmaker Scania AB and defense company Saab AB.

General Motors Co. which retained a stake in Saab when it sold the company to Dutch supercar maker Spyker Cars NV in February 2010 holds rights to the tooling and technology for the Saab 9-4 and 9-5 cars and the conventional powertrain in the 9-3 compact sedan, all of which it helped develop. GM blocked previous bids for Saab by refusing to license its technology to others. The company says the NEVS deal doesn't involve any GM licenses.

Saab's court-appointed administrator says the new owners intend to relaunch car operations at the Trollhattan plant by producing electric cars based on the 9-3. Sales are expected to begin in early 2014 in China, eventually expanding to global markets. NEVS also promises an all-new EV, which analysts expect to ride on the PhoeniX platform.

Proceeds from the sale are unlikely to cover the 9.4 billion-krona (€1.1 billion) gap between Saab's debts and assets, analysts say. Sweden, Saab's biggest creditor, says it may take over Saab's spare-parts unit, which wasn't part of the sale. The Swedish got the business as collateral for guaranteeing a 2.2 billion-krona (€248 million) loan from the European Investment Bank in 2009. Sweden repaid the loan in January.

Demand for Saab cars plunged to fewer than 32,000 units in 2010 from a peak of about 133,000 units four years earlier. The company suspended production in March 2011 and filed for bankruptcy in December.