Saab and Volvo, the only European luxury brands owned by U.S. automakers, are at the Detroit auto show to stir interest in their cars this week. General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are trying to peddle the companies, Bloomberg reported.
GM and Ford haven't named any potential suitors since they began searching for buyers last month to end losses on the Swedish units and boost cash. The hunt began last month as the global recession deepened, damping prospects for a quick sale.
"I don't think they will find buyers, and so it's a question of what happens in the absence of that," said Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive officer of Santa Monica, California-based Edmunds.com. GM and Ford may end up stuck with the money-losing units that don't fit the U.S. automakers' focus on volume sales.
GM is working to settle Saab's future before presenting a survival plan to the U.S. government by March 31 to keep $13.4 billion in federal loans, GM's Europe Chief, Carl-Peter Forster, told reporters at the auto show. Detroit-based GM has discussed Saab with one automaker, Forster said, without being specific.
Volvo, based in Gothenburg, hasn't had any discussions about a sale, Chief Executive Officer Stephen Odell said in an interview in Detroit.
"If we move to sustainable profitability, the questions of ownership have only better answers than if we're not on that route," said Odell, who became the first non-Swedish CEO in 2008 as Ford tightened control of the brand it acquired in 1999 for $6.5 billion. Ford may seek as much as $6 billion in a sale, people familiar with the plan said last month.