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GENERAL MOTORS

Spyker lined up to buy Saab: GM

General Motors has revealed that Dutch sportscar maker Spyker is the only firm in the running for the acquisition of Saab Automobile, Reuters reports.

Earlier in the day, Jöran Hägglund, state secretary in the Swedish enterprise ministry, said there was “one main lead”, without revealing the identity of the prospective buyer.

“We, both the European Investment Bank and the Swedish government, have been given one main lead that we are beginning to analyze, though we are also looking more broadly at a few other interested parties,” Hägglund told Sveriges Radio

Swedish luxury carmaker Koenigsegg and a Chinese partner, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. (BAIC), gave up their joint bid for Saab last month, citing costly delays in the transaction.

The European Investment Bank had already given Saab the green light for a €400 million ($600 million) loan during Koenigsegg’s negotiations based on its business plan for Saab, but the Swedish government had yet to agree to act as guarantor when Koenigsegg withdrew its offer.

Hägglund refused to be drawn on the name of the new potential buyer, but Swedish media reports have suggested it is Dutch sports car maker Spyker.

GM “is now putting all its energy into concluding the necessary negotiations in order to meet the deadline set for the end of the year,” Hägglund said.

Saab has barely turned a profit in two decades.

The Swedish centre-right government has repeatedly refused to take a stake in the car maker, arguing that the state should not own companies — and especially not one that a major corporation like GM has been unable to turn around.

On Monday, BAIC announced it had agreed to acquire the technology for Saab’s outgoing 9-3 and 9-5 car models, turbine engines and gearboxes for an undisclosed sum.

Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri on Tuesday valued the sale at 1.4 billion kronor ($194 million), saying that was enough to keep the crisis-ridden iconic brand afloat until the end of the first quarter.

Saab, which built its first prototype cars in 1947, risks closure if no buyer is found.

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SHOOTING

Police probe Georgian’s ‘execution’ in Berlin park

German police were Sunday investigating the assassination-style killing in a Berlin park of a Georgian man who was reportedly a former special forces commando and Chechnya war veteran.

Police probe Georgian's 'execution' in Berlin park
File photo: DPA

Police have arrested a 49-year-old suspect from Russia's Chechnya republic over Friday's murder of the man media identified only as Zelimkhan K., 41.

The killer had approached his victim from behind, as he was on his way to a mosque, shot him twice and fled by bicycle in what one witness described as an “execution” style killing.

Police divers later recovered a Glock handgun, a wig and the bicycle from the nearby Spree river, reported Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

A large sum of money was found in the home of the suspect, according to Tagesspiegel daily.

The victim was reportedly a veteran of the Second Chechen War (1999-2009) who later joined a Georgian anti-terrorist unit.

In 2012, his unit engaged in an operation against militants holding hostages in the Lopota gorge near the border with Russia's Dagestan republic.

German media said the murder was believed to be a revenge killing related to the victim's military past.

One of his sons said Zelimkhan K., a father of five, had survived four previous attempts on his life, the most recent in 2015 in Tiflis, Georgia, B.Z. daily reported.

For the past few years Zelimkhan K. had been living in Berlin under an assumed identity.

German police had, meanwhile, also listed him a potentially militant Islamist for reasons still unclear, Bild reported.

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