The word in Sweden is that the new owners of the Renault F1 team GenII and Bernie Ecclestone are in the process of trying to buy the entire Saab Automobile firm from General Motors. This adds a whole new dimension to the purchase of the Renault F1 team and suggest that perhaps when the Renault deal is over, the team might end up being badged as Saab. The company has long been renowned for its innovation and most recently has been working hard on green technology.
The involvement of Ecclestone gives a clear picture of how closely the two parties have been working over Renault F1.
Originally a division of the Svenska Aeroplan AB, an aviation company, Saab Automobile has existed in various forms since 1937 but it was not until the 1950s that the company started building high-performance vehicles. The company was acquired by GM in 1989. The company went into administration in February and the remains of the firm was sold off to various different bidders with designed and production lines going to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corporation. The remains of the business was subject to a bid from the Dutch firm Spyker, but the GenII bid may proved to be more desirable for the Swedish government, which wants to keep factories in the country open.
joeblogsf1 
It is really interesting watching where all the pieces of the GM empire are ending up. There is a long track record of deals nearly getting done.
Saturn nearly gets bought out by Penske but the deal fell through. So did the earlier deal with Koinegsegg with Saab. So did the Magna deal to buy Opel.
The only deal that seems to be going through is the Hummer deal with the Chinese firm Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery. Even that has been talked about for months with little fire.
To be honest, anyone entering the automotive industry right now is insane.
I’m a huge Saab fan and if this is going to happen not only my beloved car compagny is saved but its also a dream come true if they enter Formula 1 under the Saab name. I wil keep my fingers crossed.
My 2 biggest pasions combined!
Wow! I wasn’t exactly enthused about a venture capital firm buying a Formula One team because I’m not thrilled with one owning the sporting rights, but this changes my tune.
Nothing short of brilliant posturing by Genii Capital if a Saab deal goes through. Saab would be able get some great exposure after the engine formula change in 2012. It would even be a great move for Genii to form a business and technology partnership between Saab and Renault. I’m putting money on a Saab-Renault GP team in 2012.
Joe,
Do you really believe Saab would go racing? Saab has shown very little interest outside of rallying ages ago, and a bit of touring car activity here and there. The brand is moribund in the US these days. What would be the benefit of Saab racing in F1?
This sounds too good to be true! SAAB, on the verge of being closed down arises as F1 team. Please make this happen.
I see their partner in the bid is a certain Mr Bernard Ecclestone
Now this is interesting news…
Lastest news is that it’s Bernie thats bidding!
Joe, I have read in the financial pages that Russian money was involved in the Spyker offer and GM are unwilling to let the Russians have access to GM/Saab technology.
Do you know if the Russians are involved with Genii?
BBC is reporting that Bernie is the financial partner to the whole deal. Well… he certainly has enough capital.
I think the big question is, does the representative for the commercial rights holder, now, again own a share in a formula one team?
Bernie sold his team to remove a conflict of interest. Does he own a team again?
Excellent.
I was dismayed when Saab was sold to GM (as I was when Daimiler Benz “merged” with Chrysler – now demerged *).
With a bit of luck it will go through and Saab will be free of GM. Got some air time on R4’s “Today” programme this morning.
* “merged” because although it was billed as a merger of equals it most certainly wasn’t. It was never a good fit and almost certainly damaged the German company.
That would be truly a win/win deal.
1. F1/FOM/FIA would win with a new high profile manufacturer whose image fits just nicely with the image that the F1 is pursuing.
2. GenII Capital would gain lots of credibility which would help it to retain and attract the key professionals and sponsors to the team.
3. Kubica and the second driver (Heidfeld?) could have more confidence with the team if it was a manufacturer team (what bad experiences with BMW?). Driving a manufacturer team instead of a private team would also look better in their CV when looking for a position in another team later on.
4. Saab would get a real chance to bring back some of its former glory that was almost completely destroyed during the GM era.
I owned three 900 Turbos of the pre GM type. They were fantastic cars. The GM (Vectra) versions were rubbish in comparison.
Great news
Regards
Grumpy Old Man
It sounds as though most of what’s left of Saab is the least important/efficient bit, the manufacturing capacity. I don’t know why the model of an auto manufacturer is so rigid, with the brand concept and design team having to own and run its own manufacturing operation. There must surely be plenty of spare manufacturing capacity in the global auto industry, so it could be that the most viable future for a quirky brand like Saab was to design, develop and brand cars with high-tech partners and get them built under contract in the far east. i.e., no factory in Sweden, no 3,400 high-cost workers.
I don’t see the point of an involvement in F1 though. If four much healthier car companies want to get out of F1, why should a bankrupt one benefit from going into it?
Do you really believe Saab would go racing? Saab has shown very little interest outside of rallying ages ago, and a bit of touring car activity here and there. The brand is moribund in the US these days. What would be the benefit of Saab racing in F1?