Spyker, Youngman agree on joint venture

Dutch supercar maker Spyker and the Chinese Youngman Group have agreed on a joint venture to build a new super sport utility vehicle and a group of sedans based on Saab's Phoenix platform. The SUV is scheduled to hit the market by the end of 2014, while no dates for the Phoenix-based sedan were announced.

Youngman will invest 10 million euros in Spyker, 7 million of which will be for stock shares constituting 29.9 percent of the supercar company. The other 3 million euros will be provided to Spyker as a loan. Youngman has already paid 2.3 million euros for 46 million shares.

The joint venture is named Spyker P2P; Youngman will own 75 percent, Spyker 25 percent. Youngman will provide most of the cash for the operation, while Spyker will donate its tech, including the platform for the SUV, which will resemble the Spyker D8 Peking-to-Paris concept. Spyker also says that additional models are being contemplated.

A second joint venture called Spyker Phoenix will build the Saab-based sedans. But the release claims that the car will be positioned higher in the market than the Saab. Youngman holds 80 percent of the venture while Spyker owns the rest. Youngman will also contribute the rights to the Phoenix platform, which it acquired in 2011. Spyker says the Phoenix venture will manufacture a full range of premium car models based on the platform, probably built in Europe or China.

Also coming up for Spyker is its court case with General Motors on Feb. 19, 2013. There, Spyker will argue against GM's motion to dismiss a case in which GM said the framework agreement would cause a change of control of Saab Automobile or would cause transfer of GM proprietary technology to Youngman. Spyker and Youngman claim that this is not so, and that Saab could have survived without Youngman taking any stake in Saab Automobile, as long as they received Youngman's cash.

We'll be paying attention to this case as it develops.

By Jake Lingeman