Koenigsegg Automotive AB, a maker of US$1.2 million high-performance sports cars, won the bidding for General Motors Corp.’s Saab Automobile AB unit, returning the automaker to Swedish control after almost two decades.

Taking over Saab will catapult Koenigsegg from a supercar niche into the automotive mass market, adding Saab station wagons to Koenigsegg cars that command speeds of close to 400 kilometers (250 miles) an hour. Koenigsegg inherits a company that’s been unprofitable for most of GM’s 20 years of ownership and employs about 100 times Koenigegg’s workforce of 45.

“It’s a great relief for all the employees and our members,” Anette Hellgren, a Saab union representative on the company board, said by telephone Tuesday. “Koenigsegg is a company of entrepreneurs and they know how to build brands in the automobile industry.”

GM bought Saab in two stages from the Wallenberg family, starting in 1990. GM, which has been operating under US bankruptcy protection since the beginning of June, has been looking for a buyer for Saab since saying in February that it was breaking ties with the division.

Loan guarantees

The deal with the super-car maker, founded by Christian von Koenigsegg in 1994, may help Saab, which is also under protection from creditors, gain support from the Swedish government. Swedish Industry Ministry State Secretary Joeran Haegglund said on June 11 that the government is “well prepared” to discuss loan guarantees with Saab’s new owner.

Koenigsegg spokeswoman Halldora von Koenigsegg, the wife of the founder, said the parties cannot discuss details of the transaction before all negotiations are completed. Discussions are continuing on the loan and financial details, she said.

Saab said on April 6 that it aims to secure about $1 billion in financing from the European Investment Bank and GM to help achieve positive cash flow by 2011. The carmaker is seeking an agreement with creditors to pay back 25 percent of about 10 billion Swedish kronor ($1.28 billion) owed and will present the outcome of talks to a court June 17.

Saab spokeswoman Gunilla Gustavs said by telephone that “everyone is confident in getting access to the EIB loan” and that the Swedish government has been involved in the sale “along the whole way.”

Dwindling sales

Saab is separate from Saab AB, the Swedish maker of the Gripen fighter jet and other defense products. In 2000, GM took full control of Saab Automobile, which racked up an operating loss of 16.5 billion kronor in the five years until 2008.

Saab employs about 4,100 people in Sweden and sold fewer than 100,000 cars last year. Its popularity peaked in the 1980s, when the 900 model drew buyers seeking a European car that stood for technical innovation, safety, luxury and idiosyncratic design. Saab was the first carmaker with side-impact protection systems in 1972 and spearheaded turbo-charged engines.

Under Koenigsegg, Saab will return production of the larger 9-5 model to its main factory in Trollhaettan from Ruesselsheim in Germany, Preuss said. Saab also makes the smaller 9-3 model, and its cars come as convertibles, sedans and station wagons.

“This sounds great,” said Rolf Berglund, one of the three presidents of Saab’s Ledarna, a white-collar union of company managers. “It’s good news they plan to keep production in Sweden.”

The carmaker, which had 0.4 percent of the European market last year, lost about three billion kronor in 2008 and expects a similar deficit in 2009, according to court documents.

Koenigsegg, based in Aengelholm, in southern Sweden, also makes two models. The CCX costs $1 million and the CCXR, which can run on biofuel, costs $1.2 million. The CCX can accelerate to 200 km/h in 9.8 seconds, according to the company’s website.

Deutsche Bank AG advised GM on the sale of Saab.

Source: Bloomberg