Swadeology

Press Release: Saab Automobile, Spyker, Pang Da And Youngman Enter Into MOU On Distribution/Manufacturing Partnership For China And Equity Participation

Trollhättan, Sweden: Spyker Cars N.V. (Spyker) announces today that Spyker, Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile), Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., Ltd (Pang Da) and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co., Ltd. (Youngman) signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU). The MOU includes an equity participation in the total aggregate amount of about EUR 245 million as well as a strategic alliance consisting of a three partite distribution joint venture and a tripartite manufacturing joint venture for Saab-branded and child brand vehicles in China.

On 16 May 2011 Spyker and Saab Automobile signed a memorandum of understanding (the 16 May MOU) with Pang Da, China’s largest publicly traded automobile distributor with over 1,100 dealerships nationwide. That 16 May MOU included a strategic alliance consisting of a 50/50 distribution joint venture (DJV) and a manufacturing joint venture (MJV) for Saab branded vehicles as well as for an MJV owned brand (the so-called ‘child brand’) in China. It was agreed that Saab Automobile would have up to 50 percent in the MJV, with Pang Da and a to-be-selected manufacturing partner owning the remaining shares. Pang Da and Saab Automobile have now agreed with Youngman to become the manufacturing partner in the MJV (in which Youngman will take 45% of the shares, Saab 45% and Pang Da 10%) and the DJV in which Youngman will take 33% of the shares, Pang Da 34% and Saab Automobile 33%.

Under the May 16 MOU, Pang Da would take an equity stake in Spyker for a total amount of EUR 65 million, representing 24 percent of Spyker on a fully diluted basis. With Youngman entering as a new shareholder in Spyker, the equity stake of Pang Da in Spyker will remain at 24 % raising its investment to EUR 109 million. The share price remains at EUR 4.19 per share and Pang Da will have the right to nominate up to two members of the Supervisory Board of Spyker.

Youngman will take a 29.9 % interest in Spyker on a fully diluted basis investing EUR 136 million at EUR 4.19 per share. Youngman will have the right to nominate up to two members of the Supervisory Board of Spyker.

Spyker, Saab Automobile, Pang Da and Youngman will set up joint ventures with respect to the manufacturing of Saab branded and child branded vehicles and the distribution of Saab branded and child branded vehicles for the China market. Saab Automobile and Youngman will each have a 45% interest in the manufacturing JV and Pang Da will hold the remaining 10%. Saab Automobile and Youngman will each have a 33% interest in the distribution JV and Pang Da will hold 34%.

The MOU is non-binding and the transactions following the MOU are subject to agreement on definitive transaction documents and certain conditions, which include consents from certain governmental agencies and third parties.

Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker and Saab Automobile said: “Having entered the MOU on May 16 with Pang Da, we collectively immediately set out to identify the most suitable (manufacturing) partner to join Saab and our joint ventures. We are convinced that Youngman represents all the qualities required to make Saab and the joint ventures a success. This MOU not only shows the belief of Pang Da and Youngman in our products for the Chinese market, it also is a step that significantly strengthens Saab’s financial position and would secure the mid and long term financing of Saab Automobile. Both Pang Da and Youngman have demonstrated a similar entrepreneurial mindset as we have which we feel will be instrumental to establish Saab’s presence in China. I am very confident that based on their experience, proven skills, their ability to move quickly and their financial strength, we found the partners that are best suited to fully explore Saab’s potential in China.”

Mr. PANG Qinghua, CEO of Pang Da, said: “Since our visit to Saab Automobile in Sweden we are even more convinced of the potential of Saab in the global market and the Chinese market, the number one market in the world, in particular and we intend to fully explore it. Not only are we impressed with the current and future product line up that is very well suited to the needs of the Chinese market but we are particularly impressed by their design, engineering and manufacturing skills.”

Mr PANG Qingnian, CEO of Youngman said: “We have been in contact with Saab Automobile for quite some time and we are very pleased to have reached an agreement with both Pang Da and Saab. We feel that Saab as a premium European brand appeals strongly to the taste and preferences of the Chinese customer who is looking for top quality vehicles with the highest levels of safety, driving pleasure and comfort and an unmistakable design language. Youngman is an automobile industrial group that produces and sells Youngman branded motor cars, MAN brand heavy type trucks and automobile spare parts. Our Manufacturing facilities are state of the art and are exactly tailored to build Saab vehicles at the highest quality standards. We look forward to a long lasting and successful relationship with Saab Automobile and Pang Da both in China as well globally through our investment in Saab.”

Not quite the Midnight Sun…..

It’s overcast here in Skellefteå so I can’t show you the midnight sun, but here are the five-minutes-to-midnight clouds and ambient light, photographed just fifteen minutes ago as I sit here writing this from the Scandic Hotel here in town.

Our ride for this day-long drive of some 1,058km was a 2010 Saab 9-3 SportCombi rental from Avis, which got fuel economy of some 10.5 litres per 100km running at occasional overtaking speeds 🙂 on 85% ethanol.

And the reason I’m here? I’ll get to that later in the week but it’s 15% northern exposure and 85% helping a friend – a long and slightly sad tale that will finally get its happy ending tomorrow.

I can tell you this much: the Avis rental is staying here and we’re taking another Saab model from the same year back home.

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Poll – Do you name your Saab?

I’ve done this before and I’ll probably do it again….

The first car I can remember is my grandfather’s brown mid-60’s Holden. It’s a little strange that that’s the first car I can remember because I would have travelled to my grandparents’ home – the only place I would have seen it – in my own parents’ car and yet I have no recollection whatsoever as to what they would have been driving at that time. I do remember Pa’s Holden, though.

The second car that I can remember clearest from my childhood is a Morris 1100 that was owned by my sister. She would have bought the 1100 when I was around 6 years old. It was white, had red vinyl seats and I used to ride in it everywhere because I never let my sister go anywhere without me (which must have been miserable for the guy who is now my brother-in-law 🙂 ). She called the car Bugalugs.

Despite this, I don’t come from a family of car-namers and I’ve never given one of my own cars a name, either. The only inanimate object that I’ve ever named is a bass guitar, which I called Veronica because of the big “V” at the top of the headstock. As far as I know, Bugalugs is the only car owned by our particular branch of the Wade family that’s ever had a name and I’m sure it was just a teenage phase and the novelty of a first car that made my sister do it.

Nevertheless, I’ve known other car-namers. A friend of mine owns a Saab 95 wagon in yellow that used to be known as “Sally Sunday” by its previous owner. And I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve heard calling their Saab by the name “Saabrina”.

A simple poll, then…..

Do you name your car? Or not? And because it’s so common, do you name your car Saabrina?

Other names and explanations can be posted to comments if you wish. I’m sure there are some entertaining stories out there about names given (and if the story’s a little too personal – nudge, nudge, wink, wink – please remember this is a family site and keep it to yourself. Thanks).

[poll id=”6″]

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Results will be published next weekend, along with a few of the comments if they’re deemed entertaining 🙂

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Saabosphere – links we liked this week

Welcome to the weekly roundup of Saab links we enjoyed reading this week at Inside Saab.

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A bit of internal follow-up first…..

The Lime Yellow Saab 9-3 Convertible Hot-or-Not poll has confirmed that the color, now no longer available on the convertible, to be officially HOT.

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Internal follow-up #2…..

An addendum to recent stories about the genesis of the Saab Convertible. This came in from Ed Iawanicki, a former employee of Saab in the USA back when the convertible was launched.

….I had to pick the car up from a photography studio in LA and drive it to Carson on a Sunday morning – this car was supposed to be secret and here I am driving down the 5 in a one-of-a-kind 900 convertible in a VERY cool color (that was never used in production) with the top down because at that point it wasn’t too clear if I put the top up that it would go back down. I was 21 years old and never so paranoid about my driving as I was that morning. Steven Rossi used to refer to it as “my girl Pearl”. 26 years later and I remember it like yesterday.

A great memory and a great story 🙂

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To our friends down the road at Volvo, your decision to abandon the wagon market in the United States has been noted.

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Speaking of Saab wagons, ABC News reports that the Saab 9-3 SportCombi has been noted by the IIHS in the United States as being one of the 15 safest SUV’s on the market there.

Personally speaking, I’m a little surprised by the SUV classification for that car, but we’ll take it.

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Till72 over at Saabs United had the opportunity to take the Hirsch Performance Saab 9-5 for a spin and it’s fair to say that he enjoyed the opportunity.

Readers might like to note the carbon leather dashboard Hirsch installed, as well as the very subtle, but tasty body kit.

Hirsch Performance are the only official Saab tuning house and modifications by Hirsch retain the vehicles factory warranty.

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This could well be my favourite classic Saab (cue Clarkson voice) ……. in the world. I filmed it whipping past everyone at the Kinnekulle track back in 2007 and this photo is from the very same track – this morning.

It’s an early 1970’s Saab 99 fitted with a 16V turbo engine and making somewhere around 300hp.

I was meant to be at Kinnekulle today, too, for a Saab Turbo Club of Sweden event, but a time mixup saw me miss it. The photo was sent to me this morning by Peter S, the owner of Saab tuner Speedparts (his brother owns this 99 and Peter has a matching one in the same spec, but in red).

Wish I was there.

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I’m in for a long drive tomorrow and there’s even a chance I’ll get to stick my head in and see this: The Umeå Institute of Design Degree Show.

It’s 900+ kilometers north of where I’m sitting right now, but I’m heading up close to Umeå to help a friend pick up his Saab 9-5 (a long, sad story involving some ice and a telegraph pole).

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IS Interview: SBS Radio

Just over a week ago, I did a phone interview with SBS Radio, a multi-language media organisation in my home country, Australia.

You should be able to listen to it on the embedded player, below.

If it doesn’t show there (it may drop off the playlist in the coming days) the you can go to the SBS Radio website. The interview should be here.

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My thanks to Johan Gabrielsson from SBS for the opportunity to talk about Saab and the role of that social media is playing within the company.

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Saab Convertible lineup in Dayton, Ohio

Following on from our loose theme-o-the-month(s) on the 25th Anniversary of the Saab Convertible, I received these photos a few weeks ago from a technician at Just Saab in Dayton, Ohio.

The photo was taken towards the end of summer, 2010, oustide the service department of their dealership. That particular day, they had at least one example of each model 900 and 9-3 Convertible in for service.

I guess the only dilemma for the service staff would have been which one to jump into first!

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Thanks to Joey at Just Saab in Dayton for the pics!

Communique: Production suspension to continue during next week

An internal communique from Saab updating the situation with regards to recent disruptions at the plant since resumption of production.

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The halt in production in April and May did not just affect Saab, but also our suppliers. We expected the risk of disruptions while restarting production, and have indeed experienced such disruptions this week. Therefore, the company decided yesterday to temporarily suspend production until we can secure a more stable flow of material.

Yesterday, Management reviewed the forecasted conditions for next week. This is part of the routine enabling us to inform suppliers about the production plan. The review revealed that suspended production will be necessary during next week as well.

The dialogue with our suppliers continues with high priority. Meanwhile, representatives from Saab and Spyker are working on a variety of initiatives to further strengthen our financial position in the short and long term and to stabilize operations. We expect to be able to make an announcement soon.

The Production staff will be at home today, Friday. Thereafter, Production management will make continual operating decisions about required attendance at work. The staff will be kept informed by their supervisors.

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End of the internal communique. Time for a little bit of context……

We have two primary ways of getting cashflow into our business.

The first is via commercial financial arrangements, which we continue to work hard at in order to secure our financial base for the future.

The second is to produce, sell and invoice cars, which is what we are working to secure with our suppliers. We now have an order bank of some 10,000 vehicles between our plant in Trollhattan and our 9-4x manufacturing arrangements with GM at Ramos Arizpe. This order bank represents a substantial and prolonged cash inflow.

As was mentioned when production resumed, we expected that there would be disruptions along the way. There are hundreds of suppliers involved with the production side of our business, and hundreds more involved in other aspects of the business. Our recent prolonged stoppage affected them in numerous ways, and this has had consequences for the re-start of production here at Saab.

As we’ve mentioned in prior communications, we are working hard on both sides of this cashflow issue and will continue to do so until the situation is resolved.

Mouthwatering Saab Club meeting in Hong Kong

Back in January 2010 there were a lot of gatherings around the world held in support of Saab as the company was threatened with closure by General Motors. The website that I used to run, Saabs United, was a central gathering point for the exchange of information about those convoys and it was a tremendous success.

I remember sitting at home watching the news flood my inbox as each of the convoys was held. You could almost track the movement of the sun by the email titles. I wasn’t surprised to see a huge gathering in Trollhattan, nor representation in Germany, France, the US and England. These were all markets I knew about.

What did surprise me, however, was the passion exhibited from Saab fans in Asia. The number of people and the incredible quality and condition of the vehicles they owned. I’ve talked to a few Saab tuning companies in my time and more than one has told me that their best and most fanatical customers are in Asia.

So it’s no surprise, then, that the following photo gallery from Hong Kong includes some fantastic Saabs. The event was held last weekend and I received the following review from Kenson Chan, part of the authorised dealer group in Hong Kong.

On June 5 (Sunday), the Saab Club HK gathered around 30 Saabs at a scenic place called Whitehead Club. Whitehead Club is just next to Sai Kung — the “Leisure Garden of Hong Kong” and has long been one of the most beautiful places in Hong Kong.

On that day, we were invited to join the gathering and we brought a new Saab 9-5 Aero and a 9-5 Vector to the venue. All members were happy to see the new Saab 9-5 and we also arranged test-drive session for them.

During the gathering, members showed their 900 Convertible and 9-3 Viggen to the media. Some members even tuned their cars on the day! At the end of the gathering, all members were given Saab Expression souvenir.

Sounds like a great club gathering and from the pictures, I think you’ll agree that Sai Kung is one of the most beautiful places in Hong Kong. What a setting!

My thanks to Kenson for the images and information, and congratulations to the Saab Club of Hong Kong on what looks like a wonderful outing.

Click the images to enlarge.

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Inside Saab – electrical integration

File this under “Things that blow your mind about how incredibly complex it is to design and build a motor vehicle”. Long title, I know. But this is one of the more mind-blowing insights I’ve had into the vehicle development process since being here at Saab.

I’ve told people for some time now that there are no ‘fingersnap’ solutions when it comes to building/changing automobiles. It’s an incredibly complex process and whilst the evolution of electronics has given us many advances in vehicle functionality, behaviour and performance, the development work required to produce these advances is astounding. Add in the fact that everything you’re about to read has to be developed, tested and approved for all of Saab’s global markets, in all vehicle configurations, and you can get a sense of the complexity even before you start trying to calculate the permutations.

I’m going to apologise in advance for this one. There’s no way that I could adequately gather together everything I’ve learned about this process and express it in an educated manner. I feel embarrassed even trying, but I hope that you’ll still get a feel for what this is all about.

The Vertical Bench

There are two main test benches used in electrical integration. The first of these is known as the vertical bench.

The vertical bench looks like a cross between a dismembered car and a telephone switchboard. It’s based on a rack system that has all of the car’s components attached to it. Look closely in the photo above and you’ll see several different radios, climate control, rear-seat video screens, door handles, etc.

Here’s a quick look into how complex things are these days – the front door handles alone are involved in more than 10 different electrical systems within the Saab 9-5. And to think there was a time when all you did was unlock the vehicle with a mechanical key and step inside! Today, with passive entry, you do less work but the car does a lot of the work for you and that work is planned and tested here at electrical integration.

Continue reading Inside Saab – electrical integration

Press Release: SAAB AUTOMOBILE TEMPORARILY SUSPENDS PRODUCTION PENDING MORE STABLE INFLOW OF COMPONENTS

Following on from the production communication from yesterday……

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Zeewolde, The Netherlands, 9 June 2011 – Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile) today decided to temporarily suspend production at its production facility in Trollhättan. The seven-week production stop in April and May has not just affected Saab Automobile, but particularly also its supplier base. While Saab Automobile booked lots of progress and reached agreements with the vast majority of its supplier base, negotiations with a number of suppliers on payment and delivery terms are still ongoing. These negotiations are expected to be finalized shortly.

Saab Automobile is working on a number of initiatives to secure further short and medium-term funding.

As communicated in the press release of May 27th, Saab Automobile anticipated production hiccups in the start-up phase which Saab Automobile has in fact experienced in the last few days. In order to avoid disruptions as a result of irregular inflows of certain components and parts, Saab Automobile has decided to temporary suspend production and will resume production as soon as possible once it has secured a more stable inflow of components and parts together with its supplier base.

Victor Muller, Chairman and CEO of Saab Automobile, said: “We anticipated that we would not see a smooth inflow of supplies as from the day we restarted production, May 27th, and communicated that in our press release of that day. We have a few thousand suppliers worldwide with each of whom we have to reach acceptable terms and conditions to resume production of parts and subsequent deliveries. Many suppliers are located outside Europe and re-stocking inevitably takes time.

“Thus far we have reached agreements with the vast majority of our suppliers and we are confident that we will reach agreement with all remaining suppliers in the coming days, thereby stabilizing our operations and our production in particular. However, it is not to be excluded that we will see production hiccups in the near future until the supply chain is fully back to normal. I reiterate our appreciation for our suppliers who are working with us constructively to come to terms and put our production back on track. At this moment, we have almost 10,000 orders on hand, including those for the Saab 9-4X which is currently being built in Mexico.”