Koenigsegg says terms agreed on Saab buy -report

STOCKHOLM Aug 18 (Reuters) - Swedish luxury car firm Koenigsegg agreed terms with General Motors Co on the purchase of loss-making Saab Automobile, though the deal is not yet fully funded, Koenigsegg's chairman told a newspaper on Tuesday.

Augie Fabela said the U.S. car firm [GM.UL] would remain a minority owner in Saab, according to Swedish business daily Dagens Industri.

He said some of the financing for the deal has yet to be secured.

Koenigsegg is hoping for a 4.3 billion Swedish crown ($778 million) loan to Saab from the European Investment Bank. IN addition to that, 3 billion crowns of financing were still missing, the paper said.

The Swedish government is negotiating with Koenigsegg on whether to guarantee an EIB loan to Saab.

"We have received explicit support for our application for a state guarantee from those who are assigned by the government to work on this," the paper quoted Fabela as saying.

"We also received support from the government after our meeting last Tuesday with (industry ministry state secretary) Joran Hagglund."

Fabela said he expected GM to keep a stake in Saab until the unit reaches profitability, which he said would probably take three years.

Spokespeople for GM Europe and Saab declined to comment on Monday evening. Koenigsegg was not immediately available for comment, after other Swedish media reported it and GM had closed the deal, citing sources. [ID:nnLI731559]

GM Europe announced in mid-June it had struck a deal to sell Saab to Koenigsegg and the sale was to close by the end of the third quarter.[ID:nLG827751]

The EIB is expected to process Saab's loan application by end-September.

Sweden said on Aug 7 it had received information on a possible pullout of investors backing the deal. But there has been no further statement by the government on the issue since. [ID:nL7348439]

"The ownership structure will change continuously in the near future," Fabela told Dagens Industri.

($1=5.525 Crown)

(Writing by Anna Ringstrom; editing by John Stonestreet)