‘Last nail in the coffin of this beautiful company’

SAAB filed for bankruptcy yesterday, giving up a desperate struggle to stay in business after previous owner General Motors blocked takeover attempts by Chinese investors.

Saab chief executive Victor Muller handed in the bankruptcy application to a court in south-western Sweden, ending his two-year effort to revive the carmaker that over more than six decades has become known for its rounded sedans and quirky design features.

The Dutch entrepreneur said he had to pull the plug after GM, which still owns some technology licenses for Saab, rejected a last-ditch financing plan involving a Chinese company.

“That basically was the last nail in the coffin of this beautiful company,” Muller said in a webcast news conference at the Saab plant in Trollhattan, south-west Sweden.

The Vanersborg district court was expected to approve the application later yesterday.

“This is the most unwelcome Christmas gift I could have imagined,” said Fredrik Almqvist, 36, who has worked at Saab’s assembly line for nearly 17 years.

While experts say the company is likely to be chopped up and sold in parts, local officials in the town of Trollhattan, where Saab employs more than 3,000 people, were holding out hope a buyer would emerge to save it.

“Our absolute hope is that the bankruptcy administrator will aim for a solution where the company is sold in its entirety,” Trollhattan Mayor Paul Akerlund said.

Muller used his luxury sports car maker Spyker Cars to buy Saab from GM in 2010, promising to restore its Swedish identity, but the company ran out of money just a year later.