F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is involved in a bid to buy Saab, the Swedish car manufacturer currently owned by General Motors.

The move follows the announcement by GM in February 2009 that it intended to divest itself of the Swedish car manufacturer which it had purchased twenty years earlier.

In June 2009, Koenigsegg signed a letter of intent only to withdraw it in November thereby leading to GM's board of directors announcing on 1 December that they had decided to give Saab until the end of the year to evaluate potential buyers.

On 20 December, it was announced by Spyker had issued a revised bid with a deadline of just 24 hours later. The Dutch manufacturer subsequently extended the deadline indefinitely to allow GM more time to make a decision.

GM subsequently agreed a new deadline of 7 January and shortly before midnight it was revealed that Ecclestone had made an offer in partnership with Genii Capital, the Luxembourg-based investment firm which recently bought a 75.1% percent stake in the Renault F1 team.

"Genii Capital has decided that given an adequate and short timeframe for finalizing its offer, it will aggressively work towards a successful closing of the transaction with all the relevant stakeholders of the company" read a statement issued last night".

Confirming the bid, Ecclestone told Bloomberg: "It's a good brand that has probably been neglected by the current owners. "We don't own it yet, so let's see what happens."