Last Friday, Swedish Automobile N.V. [Swan] signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Pang Da and Youngman for the sale of the Saab brand to the two Chinese companies.
A MoU, however, does not mean that the transaction is completed. Especially when the Chinese are involved: recently Subaru and Toyota were denied a new joint venture in the country by the local authorities, which have also been stalling on approving the previous Saab-Pang Da-Youngman deal that was signed back in July.
But this time it looks like the deal will eventually go through: speaking to Reuters in an industrial fair in Shanghai, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Miao Wei, said that “we support it in principle”.
Pang Da and Youngman will pay $100 million US to acquire 100% of Saab shares. They also plan to invest a minimum of $835.8 million in the next two years in order to rid the Swedish carmaker of all its debts, develop a new range of products starting with the 2012 9-3, and begin production in China.
