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Article: For sale; Sweden's car industry.(Saab Automobile AB and Volvo Car Corp.)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- January 31, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Saab and Volvo are on the block. But are there any buyers?
THE Swedish car industry is up for sale. Saab and Volvo are on the block because their owners, General Motors (GM) and Ford respectively, can no longer afford to keep them. But there are important differences. GM may have only weeks to divest itself of Saab, whereas Ford is a slightly less desperate seller.
GM, which would have gone bust without the emergency federal loans it received at the end of the year, faces a deadline on February 17th. It must show progress towards viability or risk having to pay the taxpayer back at the end of March. Most attention will be focused on negotiations with ...