SAAB HAS filed for bankruptcy, bringing to an end a two-year attempt to rescue the troubled premium Swedish car firm.
The decision was made after its former owner General Motors blocked the latest takeover attempts by Chinese investors.
Saab had been in rescue talks with several potential investors over the last two years but the deals have fallen through, blocked by regulators or by General Motors, which remains a vital supplier and was concerned that its technology would end up in the hands of Chinese competitors.
The final Chinese suitor, Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile, said it pulled out after its last proposal for a solution was rejected over the weekend.
Saab chief executive Victor Muller, who handed in the bankruptcy application to a court in Sweden yesterday, described the latest General Motors decision as “the last nail in the coffin of this beautiful company”.
Emmet Hogan of Saab’s Irish distributors OHM Group, said they were waiting to hear further details from Sweden. There are currently 12 Saab dealers in Ireland, along with two additional aftersales service centres. Mr Hogan said there is no concern over the supply of spare parts to current owners as the parts arm of the business had been separated from the rest of the firm in 2009 and was a profitable enterprise that would continue.
He said that, as Saab production had stopped in April, the number of unsold new Saabs in Ireland was “in single figures”. It sold just 138 new Saabs so far this year, out of a total new car market of 89,522.
Saab began as Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget in 1937, making aircraft, before starting to produce cars in 1947. Saab Auto split from the aerospace operations in the 1990s, with General Motors gaining a 50 per cent stake in 1990 and full control in 2000.
When General Motors was bailed out by the US government in 2009, Saab was designated for sale or closure.
It was bought by niche sports car firm Spyker Cars, but the new Dutch owners struggled to keep it afloat. Production at the firm’s car plant in Trollhatten, in south-western Sweden, stopped in April.
