October 31 -- High-end auto distributor Pangda Automobile Trade (601258.SH) and Youngman Automobile Group signed a contract with Swedish Automobile, formerly known as Spyker Cars, to fully acquire Saab Automobile for 100 million euros, or approximately $141.9 million, reports yicai.com, citing an announcement by the Swedish company.
Pangda and Youngman had in July planned to pay 245 million euros to purchase a stake of not less than 53.9 percent in Saab.
Pangda announced today that it had authorized company chairman, Pang Huaquan, to take charge of the negotiations, with the total acquisition cost to be capped at one billion yuan, of which Pangda will invest up to 400 million yuan.
Both parties will later inject a maximum of 2.5 billion yuan into Saab, of which Pangda will contribute 1 billion yuan.
According to Jia Xinguang, an independent auto analyst, the only remaining interested buyer of Saab was Pangda as U.S. private equity fund North Street Capital had cancelled previous plans to offer $60 million worth of loans and to buy 2.3 million shares of Saab Automobile.
Pangda will benefit from the investments made by Swedish Automobile in research facilities, after the Swedish company purchased Saab from General Motors.
Swedish Automobile had terminated a deal with Pangda and Youngman on October 23 as it could not agree with the Chinese parties' terms of a full acquisition of Saab.
The Swedish company had then said it plans to introduce a new investor should the Chinese parties give up its acquisition plans.
With North Street Capital pulling out of its commitments, Swedish Auto has to accept the demands of Pangda and Youngman, according to the report.
Compared with the agreement signed in July, the current transaction price represents a 78 percent discount for the Chinese purchasers.
According to Huang Zhiqiang, vice president of Youngman, the company will have a 60 percent stake in Saab, while Pangde will hold the remainder.
Li Shufu, founder of Geely Auto, predicts that the two Chinese parties will have to inject operating capital of at least $1.7 billion, or 12 billion yuan, in order to turn Saab around, an estimate which exceeds that of Youngman by three billion yuan.
Shares of Pangda were suspended from trading today.
Source:CapitalVue