A report has surfaced out of Sweden that the three serious bidders for General Motors’ Swedish unit, Saab , include rapidly-expanding Italian automaker Fiat, Chinese car company Geely and an undisclosed German bank. Geely’s bid, however, has apparently been pre-rejected by GM CEO Fritz Henderson, who is said to be leery of Chinese competition.
Sweden’s Göteborgs Tidning newspaper cited an unnamed GM source in the report.
“The Chinese bid is finished, Henderson is afraid of competition,†the source said.
Geely issued a release well before the newspaper report saying that it did not intend to bid on Saab , even though representatives of the Chinese automaker have been spotted near Saab’s Trollhattan, Sweden, headquarters.
Saab’s Guy Lofalk told Sweden’s TT news agency that the bidders, whose identities have not been confirmed by the automaker, have agreed to move production of the redesigned Saab 9-5 back to Trollhattan. GM had planned to build the 9-5 in Germany.
