AMSTERDAM: Dutch sportscar maker Spyker is suing General Motors for $3 billion on behalf of its subsidiary Saab, accusing the US automaker of deliberately bankrupting the Swedish group by blocking a deal with a Chinese investor.
Saab Automobile, one of Sweden's best-known brands, stopped production in May 2011 when it could no longer pay suppliers and employees and went bust in December, less than two years after GM sold it to Spyker.
"They (GM) had it coming," Spyker Chief Executive Victor Muller told Reuters on Monday.
"They never thought we would survive. Well Spyker's still here. They assumed Spyker would end up in the graveyard with Saab and obviously that didn't happen."
Spyker said its lawsuit sought "redress for the unlawful actions GM took to avoid competition with Saab Automobile in the Chinese market.
"GM's actions had the direct and intended objective of driving Saab Automobile into bankruptcy, a result of GM's ... interfering with a transaction between Saab Automobile, Spyker and Chinese investor Youngman that would have permitted Saab Automobile to restructure and remain a solvent, going concern."
GM spokesman James Cain told Reuters: "It is hard to believe. We have no comment until we see the lawsuit."
Muller tried for months to pull off a rescue deal with various Russian, Middle Eastern and Chinese investors, including China's Pang Da Automobile Trade Co Ltd. and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co.
He told reporters that the $3 billion claim was based on what Saab would have been worth if a deal with Chinese firm Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co., or Youngman, had gone ahead.
Spyker spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation fees preparing the case over the past six months, Muller said.
Spyker's lawsuit was being funded by an anonymous third party, who will share in any settlement, Muller said.
General Motors, which operates in China in a partnership with state-run automaker SAIC Motor Corp. Ltd., late last year effectively blocked deals with two Chinese investors, Pang Da Automobile Trade Co and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile.
GM said it would stop supplying vehicles and technology to Saab's new owners because it would run counter to the interests of its own shareholders. Saab filed for bankruptcy months later and stopped producing cars.
"GM created the appearance of initially encouraging Saab to enter into a deal with Chinese investors to save the company, only later to unlawfully pull the rug out from under Saab, driving it into bankruptcy liquidation," Spyker said in its complaint, filed in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan.
"Indeed, it was GM's intent by whatever means necessary to quash any financing or investment deal that could save Saab from liquidation, because GM simply sought to eliminate Saab from competition, particularly in the Chinese automobile market," the complaint said.
Saab, which had been making cars since 1947, was declared insolvent with debts of about 13 billion Swedish crowns ($1.93 billion), around 2.2 billion of which is owed to the Swedish Debt Office.
Following Saab's bankruptcy, Sweden's bankruptcy administrators in Sweden said they had chosen a consortium called National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) AB to buy Saab for an undisclosed sum.
