Youngman Auto buys Saab's Phoenix platform

With Saab’s bankruptcy now at hand, the company is breaking up into pieces to pay off its substantial debts. And it was clear that the biggest winner of this division would be Youngman Auto, which stood by Saab’s deathbed until the very end.

Youngman announced today that it has bought the intellectual property rights to the Phoenix platform, the latest technological achievement of Saab and its most promising asset for the immediate future. To do so, Youngman says that it has already completed all the necessary legal steps and requirements to open a production centre in Sweden, where it will assemble cars on the aforementioned Phoenix platform.

What is still not entirely clear to me (and I wonder) is whether GM will not oppose this transfer of intellectual property rights, given that one of GM’s main obstacles to selling Saab was preventing the Chinese from taking ownership of the Phoenix platform know-how and the Saab 9-4.

For now, it is still unknown whether Youngman will also buy Saab’s facilities, buildings and movable assets in Sweden for its own future models based on Phoenix, but it is likely that Youngman has been preparing the ground and building contacts in Sweden even before Saab went bankrupt.

Via | Autonews China