Saab ties Yuan on with Hawtai

Looking to leave its financial woes behind once and for all, Spyker and Saab have entered into an agreement with China’s Hawtai Motor Group Company Limited for medium term funding and joint ventures in manufacturing, technology and product distribution.

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The agreement sees Spyker receive 120 million Euros (roughly $169 million Canadian) for a 29.9% stake in Spyker, and a loan of 30 million Euros (about $42 million Canadian) for six months at seven percent annual interest rate. The manufacturing, technology and distribution part of the agreement relates to the Chinese domestic market (pending approval from the Chinese government, European Investment Bank and the Swedish National Office).

“The partnership with Hawtai allows Saab Automobile on the one hand to continue executing its business plan, since we secured the required mid-term financing subject to meeting certain conditions,” said Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker and Chairman of Saab Automobile. “On the other hand, it allows Saab Automobile to enter the Chinese car market and establish a technology partnership with a strong Chinese manufacturer. We expect that Saab’s unique brand values based on its aviation heritage, Scandinavian origins and innovation-driven character will do very well in the Chinese market.

“This is a great day for our relatively young company. The partnership with the iconic Saab brand will give us access to innovative technologies and an international network which would have taken us decades to build,” Mr Richard Zhang, Vice President of Hawtai. “On the other hand, we have a very strong Chinese manufacturing and distribution infrastructure which we will make available to our new partner Saab Automobile. Our participation in Spyker demonstrates our commitment to the future of Saab Automobile as a premium European car manufacturer.”

Founded in 2000, Hawtai is a China-based privately-owned automotive company with headquarters and R&D centre in Beijing, and two production facilities - in Ordos, Inner Mongolia and Rongcheng, Shandong Province.

Hawtai currently has an annual production capacity of 350,000 vehicles, 300,000 clean diesel engines and 450,000 automatic transmissions. By 2015, it hopes to move onto the global stage by raising its capacity to 1 million vehicles, 1 million engines and 1 million automatic transmissions.

Source: Autonet