Spyker sets profit target for Saab
Spyker Cars has set Saab an ambitious 2012 profit target as it stressed development funding was secured despite needing more cash to fund its acquisition of the ailing Swedish auto brand.
The tiny, loss-making Dutch luxury carmaker, which produces just a few dozen handmade cars per year, clinched an audacious deal to buy Saab from General Motors last week.
A defunct brand until current chief executive Victor Muller revived the firm in 2000, Spyker hopes to win back customers for Saab by focussing on three or four niche models, eating up an anticipated 627.7m in development costs.
Spyker, which will hold a shareholders meeting on the deal on February 12, also said Saab would return to profitability by 2012 – a timeframe called into question by an Amsterdam analyst.