M&M mulls to acquire Saab Automobiles

Mahindra and Mahindra once again have an ace up on their sleeves. Mahindra India is one of the four companies which have shown interest in Saab, the Swedish automaker. Mahindra going one step ahead from the rest of the contenders, has signed a confidentiality agreement with Saab and is about to finalize its proffer. Saab had officially gone bankrupt last year December; this was the second time this has happened as Saab was on the brink of bankruptcy when General Motors sold it in 2010 to Swedish Automobile (SWAN) for $400 million. Not letting the deal slip right from its hands, M&M, during the next fortnight will probably close the agreement.  Kotak Mahindra will be onboard for this deal as well as it has been for several other big deals like Satyam.

Both M&M auto and its M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) team will congregate at the end of the week to take the last call on the structure of the proposal. The biggest speed breaker for Mahindra in the acquiring journey of Saab is that the ex- owner of Saab i.e. General Motors has refused to part with the technology that it used in Saab Automobiles.  As per the market news, GM has out rightly clarified that they will not give the IPRs (Intellectual Property Rights) for the 9-4 x and 9-5 models to any bargain hunter. This has previously proven fatal for the Chinese automaker Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile when they were on their journey to acquire Saab; however the market is abuzz with Youngman’s revised offer for Saab of 3 billion Swedish crowns ($446 million).