It was announced today that Swedish Automobile, parent company of Saab and Spyker, sold Spyker to North Street Capital, a Connecticut-based private equity firm, for about 32 million euros (about $43 million). At this moment, neither Swedish Automobile or the investment firm didn’t want to release any terms of the deal. Still, it was not a secret that Swedish Automobile wanted to sell Spyker as during the summer it announced that it was negotiating with a group funded by the Russian investor Vladimir Antonov. Apparently the talks collapsed and the group funded by Vladimir Antonov announced that it will resurrect the legendary Jensen interceptor.
Although these news are not quite good for the fans of the Spyker sports cars we must see the bright side: the money received for Spyker will be seen as a mouth of fresh air for Swedish Automobile, which desperately needs cash in order to help Saab dig out bankruptcy. Of course, North Street Capital has a lot of work with Spyker because the Dutch manufacturer didn’t sold too many cars.
According to Financial Times, Spyker is currently unprofitable and sold only 36 cars in 2009. The firm didn’t reveal the numbers for 2010 but don’t expect to see any improvement. Vladimir Antonov said earlier this year that Spyker produced zero units in 2010… so it appears that Spyker needs some money, new products and a new marketing team in order to become a successful company!
