The next chapter in the Saab opera has a new protagonist called Brightwell Holdings, a Turkish private equity firm. Brightwell is is perhaps the unknown Turkish entity mentioned last year as having an interest in bankrupt Saab, along with India's Mahindra & Mahindra. A board member at Brightwell said the company will spend two weeks evaluating Saab's assets and then will make a bid, "there's no question."
Turkey doesn't have a national car company, but it does have plenty of automotive manufacturing expertise since Ford, Fiat and Renault have factories there. Brightwell has said it would keep Saab production in Trollhätten, but (and this is only conjecture) along with a decades-old push for a national car company, the increase of Turkish private equity, and Turkey's desire to join the European Union, the bid could have motivating factors beyond the financial.
Regardless, that means we now have two players in the Saab story, with Youngman's renewed run at Saab expected to result in a bid as soon as next week that could exceed a billion euros. It's difficult to imagine that Saab will somehow be rescued, but the ball is still in play.
Turkey doesn't have a national car company, but it does have plenty of automotive manufacturing expertise since Ford, Fiat and Renault have factories there. Brightwell has said it would keep Saab production in Trollhätten, but (and this is only conjecture) along with a decades-old push for a national car company, the increase of Turkish private equity, and Turkey's desire to join the European Union, the bid could have motivating factors beyond the financial.
Regardless, that means we now have two players in the Saab story, with Youngman's renewed run at Saab expected to result in a bid as soon as next week that could exceed a billion euros. It's difficult to imagine that Saab will somehow be rescued, but the ball is still in play.
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