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- BUSINESS, Page 69Business NotesBUYOUTSSaab Lands a Rich American
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- There's nothing like teaming up with a $100 billion company
- to improve one's prospects. Or so Swedish automaker Saab-Scania
- AB hopes. Saab last week agreed to sell General Motors a 50%
- interest in its car-making operations, which had 1988 sales of
- $2.6 billion, for some $600 million, plus a promise that GM will
- invest another $100 million. Saab, which also makes trucks and
- aircraft, will spin the auto holdings into a subsidiary to carry
- out the deal.
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- GM was a latecomer to the Saab wooing game, which began
- when Ford started courting the company earlier this year. After
- the collapse of those negotiations, auto-industry analysts
- expected Italy's Fiat to be the winning suitor. For Saab-Scania,
- which lost $123 million on its car-making operations in the
- first half of 1989, the advantage of the deal was access to GM's
- deep pockets. GM will gain badly needed production capacity at
- Saab's five plants in Europe, plus a stronger position in the
- U.S. and European luxury-car markets.
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