Is tiny Koenigsegg revving up to buy Saab?

By Peter Levring and Anna Ringstrom

ANGELHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) - Sweden's Saab Automobile, renowned for stodgy family sedans, may soon be in the hands of a man who makes some of the world's sexiest sports cars.

If, as people familiar with the situation say, tiny Swedish niche player Koenigsegg is to buy the money-losing Saab from bankrupt General Motors, there will have been no greater mismatch since David sized up Goliath.

How the two will fit is an open question, as they are at opposite ends of the industry spectrum, but the union would be an extraordinary achievement for a firm that began 15 years ago based almost entirely on a very young man's passion.

Christian von Koenigsegg, who has dreamed of making cars since he was five, founded the company when he was 22.

Now, his clients are people who fly jets to the firm's headquarters -- which has its own runway -- and are ready to splash out $1 million to drive away in a vehicle that is among the speediest consumer cars on the planet.

"It's mostly people who have a multi-car garage; and by that I don't mean two or three cars, I mean maybe 10 cars or more. That's a typical Koenigsegg customer," said Charlie Mannerfeldt, the founder of the sole Koenigsegg retailer in Sweden.

Mannerfeldt said his dealership, located in the posh Stockholm suburb of Djursholm, has sold three Koenigsegg cars in the past three years. All three sales were in Sweden, though he said customers can be found all over the world. Many are in the Middle East or the United States.

Halldora von Koenigsegg, Christian's wife, is the company spokeswoman and one of its 45 staff. She declined to comment on whether a deal was in the works. But from the floor of a showroom beside a cobalt-blue hot-rod, she enthused about the Koenigsegg vision. "We are a company that is focused on the big picture, on the pleasure of driving and on testing limits," she said.