By Andy Hum

AFTER MORE DRAMA than a sappy serial, the sale of Swedish car-maker Saab to Dutch supercar makers, Spyker Cars, has concluded. Under the deal, Spyker will pay US$74 million in cash, and General Motors (GM) will also get US$326 million worth of shares in Saab, but that amount also only entitles them to ‘less than one percent of the voting rights in the capital of Saab’.

Many news reports have stated that part of the delay was because a certain Russian, Alexander Antonov, who was until recently a major shareholder in the Spyker Group, was rumoured to be involved with the Russian mafia.

Spyker founder, Victor Muller, has since taken over the stake previously owned by Antonov. GM vice president for corporate planning and alliances, John Smith, said, “as part of finding a sustainable solution for Saab, we are happy with the structures of the company that Victor Muller has put in place for Saab Spyker and I’ll just leave it at that.”

The deal is also a happy ending to all the drama that local Saab dealer Auto Eurokars, which belongs to the Eurokars Group, had to endure.

David Chung, assistant marketing manager for Auto Eurokars, said that it was good news and that they are awaiting further directions from Europe. Chung said, “However, we are still positive about having the new Saab 95 on our shores as planned.”

“The Saab 93 models continue to be available. In the meantime, it is business as usual for our aftersales department in support all our existing customers,“ he added.