China’s Pangda wires €30 million to Spyker/Saab

China’s Pangda wired €30 million to Spyker/Saab on May 17, according to Pangda chairman Pang Qinghua in an interview with auto.sohu.com.

Saab promises to resume production in seven days. Pang is on his way to Sweden to conduct his due diligence study of the troubled automaker.

“Our timetable is to set up a joint venture sales company in three months,” Pang said. “The JV assembly plant will be set up in one year and local production is planned in two years.”

Pang emphasized that his company, not Spyker/Saab, will have the right to select the potential Chinese OEM partner. “We have two criteria for the selection: that the Chinese OEM must have a deep understand of Saab Automobile and that it has a strong interest in localizing the production of Saab cars,” said Pang.

The public listed Pangda Group, one of China’s largest automobile dealer group based in Tangshan, Hebei Province, plans to build 50 Saab 4S dealerships in 2011, with a goal of selling at least 10,000 Saab cars a year. These would constitute 50 percent of Saab dealers in China. The other 50 percent will be independent Saab dealers.

Pang also reveals that the Saab model for Pangda may be duplicated soon in July and the target overseas carmaker is Ssangyoon of South Korea.

(The full interview piece is to follow on www.automotivewatch.com)