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SAAB

GM unlikely to accept new Spyker bid: report

Although it has extended the deadline to close the deal for Saab until January 7th, American automaker General Motors (GM) is reportedly poised to reject two revised bids for its Swedish car brand, according to Bloomberg News.

Published: 3 January 2010 10:23 CET
GM unlikely to accept new Spyker bid: report

Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri (DI) cited a Bloomberg report indicating that GM was not likely accept either the renewed offer from Dutch luxury car brand Spyker or a new bid from American banking group Merbanco, which has reportedly brought in Swedish investors.

Merbanco CEO Christoffer Johnston visited the Saab factory in Trollhättan over the summer and Merbanco was among the three prospective buyers which made it to the final round of consideration by the GM board.

Bloomberg reported that a source close to the negotiations, who asked not to be identified due to the private nature of the discussions, said that GM will review bids until the January 7 deadline, when it will officially begin winding down its Swedish business.

The source claimed that GM has yet to receive a bid that has financing secured and will proceed with selling individual assets.

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ANGELA MERKEL

Merkel: trust must be ‘restored’ in diesel cars after emissions scandal

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that trust must be restored in diesel cars after the emissions cheating scandal and spoke out against plans to ban them from some inner cities.

Published: 21 August 2017 16:00 CEST
Merkel: trust must be 'restored' in diesel cars after emissions scandal
File photo of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a Volkswagen car: DPA.

She said she was “angered” by German auto giants who in the “dieselgate” scandal either broke the law or used legal loopholes, but also pointed to the at least 800,000 jobs in the crucial industrial sector.

Speaking just over a month before September 24th elections, Merkel was asked in an online video interview with top-selling Bild newspaper about motorists' fears about the falling resale value of their diesel cars.

She pointed to new software updates designed to fix the emissions problem and said that “in order to prevent or reverse the drop in value of diesel cars, we need to restore trust in diesel”.

To this end, she stressed that she opposed plans by some German cities to fully or partially ban diesel cars from urban areas which have recorded high air pollution levels.

Merkel said “that will be hard work” and the subject of a “summit” with the municipalities involved which she plans to hold on September 4th.

READ ALSO: How Merkel and her main rival are competing to bash car industry in election race

The industry's fall from grace began in 2015 when Volkswagen admitted to installing software in 11 million diesel engines to cheat emissions tests, and suspicions later spread to other manufacturers.

The scandal sparked by a US investigation deepened on reports last month that Daimler, BMW, VW and its Audi and Porsche subsidiaries had long colluded on technical specifications including emissions technology.

The damage done to the 'made in Germany' brand, along with concerns over pollution and plans by some cities to ban dirty diesels, have fuelled public anger.

Merkel said in the Bild interview that her government must balance the concerns of car owners, auto workers and the industrial sector, without explicitly mentioning public health concerns.

Merkel was dubbed the “car chancellor” in 2013 after she went to bat for the sector and argued against an EU cap on emissions.

SEE ALSO: What you should know about the 'dieselgate' scandal shaking up Germany's car industry

But her election opponents, the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), also have cosy links to the sector.

In the state of Lower Saxony, which holds a 20-percent stake in Volkswagen and two seats on its board, recent revelations that SPD premier Stephan Weil allowed VW to vet his comments on dieselgate sparked outrage.