Fans of Swedish cars with double letters in their name will be disappointed to hear that the planned sale of Saab to Koenigsegg has been binned. The Swedish supercar maker has pulled out of the deal with Saab's parent company, General Motors, saying it could no longer carry out the acquisition.
Koenigsegg had planned to take over Saab from GM with the help of outside investment. In a statement, Christian von Koenigsegg said: "We regret that after six months of intense and goal-oriented work we have come to the painful and difficult conclusion that we are not going to be able to carry out the acquisition of Saab Automobile."
The deal was always going to be audacious, Koenigsegg's car operations limited to a handful of hypercars built by a small staff, Saab in comparison a huge undertaking. GM is now left with Saab and little idea of what to do with it, a GM spokesman saying they will assess the situation next week.
Kyle Fortune - 24 Nov 2009