Saab: China’s Pang Da & Youngman to invest $7.5 billion. UPDATED

Saab: China to invest $7.5 billion

Update: We have now been told by Saab that Pang Da and Youngman are to provide €50 million immediately and €600 million for short to medium finance. Funding for the revised business plan and provide long-term financial stability the new Chinese owners have also budgeted funding for the planned expansion of Saab Automobile’s portfolio and additional operations to be set up in China

There will be a reduction of 500 in the employee numbers. Sales targets for 2012 of 35-55,000 cars and 2013 of 75-85,00 and long-term of 200,000 cars a year

Interestingly, Saab says that ‘Saab Automobile has not received the funds from Pang Da and Youngman that have been committed for today.’ Oh, well.

Although the deal which will see Saab sold to China’s Youngman and Pang Da is still subject to a raft of approvals – Swedish Debt Office, EIB, GM, Chinese Government… – it seems the Chinese have big plans to invest up to $7.5 billion in Saab in the coming years.

Auto Motor Sport in Sweden is reporting that Youngman and Pang Da will report to the Swedish Court of Protection in Vanersborg this morning the extent of their plans to turn Saab back in to a viable car maker once more.

The Chinese are planning to invest $2 billion immediately to get Saab back on to an even keel and get the production lines running again (and all the bills paid). That will mean the new Saab 9-5 finally coming out of the gates at Trollhattan again and feeding the starving network of remaining Saab dealers.

But over the next few years the Chinese are planning to invest a further $5.5 billion to develop a new small Saab, the next generation Saab 9-3 and a new, bigger Saab, for the Chinese market.

The plans to expand the range – which could see a Saab 9-1,Saab 9-6 and Saab 9-7 arrive in the next few years – are probably the Saab model expansion plans Victor Muller revealed back in July.

Those plans were for the baby Saab – the Saab 9-1 – to be based on the MINI platform with BMW engines, a Saab 9-6, which we assume to be a stretched Saab 9-5 for China, and a Saab 9-7, which could be a production version of the Saab Aero X Concept.

Grandiose plans, indeed, but it’s exactly the sort of news Saab needs if it’s to recover from the debacle of the last year.

More when we get it.

By Cars UK