Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
Officials at Saab Hawaii said Tuesday they will continue to provide service for Saab vehicles after the Swedish automaker’s announcement that it has filed for bankruptcy.
After six decades of building cars renowned for their teardrop designs and quirky features, cash-strapped Saab Automobile gave up its desperate struggle for a lifeline Monday and filed for bankruptcy.
Saab CEO Victor Muller said "the last nail in the coffin" was previous owner General Motors Co.’s rejection of a Chinese company’s attempts to gain control of the ailing Swedish brand. Muller personally handed over the bankruptcy petition to a Swedish court, which approved it late Monday.
Though a theoretical chance remains for a new buyer to step in during the bankruptcy process, analysts said Saab’s troubles underline how difficult it is for a small, niche carmaker to survive in today’s competitive global market.
Saab Hawaii, on Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki, is the sole Saab dealership in the state. There were nine Saabs sold and registered in Hawaii through the first nine months of this year, down from 20 during the same period last year, according to the quarterly Hawaii Auto Outlook published by the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association.
Muller, a Dutch entrepreneur, used his luxury sports car maker Spyker Cars to buy Saab from GM in 2010 for $74 million in cash plus $326 million worth of preferred shares. He vowed to gradually increase production while restoring Saab’s Swedish identity — which critics said was diluted under GM ownership. But the company ran out of money just a year later.
As production stopped and salary payments were delayed, Muller fended off bankruptcy by selling Saab’s real estate and lining up financing deals with investors in Russia and China. He bought time by placing the company in a reconstruction process under bankruptcy protection.
But the deals fell through, blocked by regulators or by GM, which was concerned that its technology would end up in the hands of Chinese competitors.
76