ThyssenKrupp in Talks to Sell Swedish Shipyard to Saab

ThyssenKrupp is in talks to sell its Swedish marine defence unit to Saab after failing to reach a deal with Sweden for a new generation of submarines as the country tries to protect its defence manufacturing sector. The companies said on Monday that negotiations over the sale of ThyssenKrupp's Swedish shipyard with operations in Malmo, Karlskrona and Musko to Saab were at an early stage and that more information would follow.

Sweden had been seeking ways to share development costs with other potential buyers of its A-26 submarine but failed to agree on commercial terms with ThyssenKrupp, which also builds submarines in a separate business in Germany.

Sweden saw the German company as a potential obstacle to the growth of the Swedish business in favour of its German unit. The government asked Saab earlier this year to come up with a strategy to support Swedish submarine naval forces.

Defence analysts saw the move as opening the door for the Swedish defence company to build submarines instead.

Saab, said the deal was in line with its ambition to expand its naval activities and help Sweden meet its needs for the design, production and maintenance of submarines and warships. "An acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems will enable Saab to meet this ambition," it said in a statement.

In a bid to build up its own submarine making ability, Saab has poached dozens of key staff from ThyssenKrupp's Swedish business in recent months, said sources at both firms, declining to be identified as they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter.

ThyssenKrupp Marine employs around 1,000 staff in Sweden, mainly in the southern Swedish cities of Malmo and Karlskrona. The Marine Systems unit, which also makes naval ships, posted sales of 1.33 billion euros last year.

Swedish investment firm Investor AB owns a 30 percent stake in Saab, whose shares were down 1.2 percent at 1322 GMT compared with a broadly unchanged Stockholm blue-chip bourse index.

(By Mia Shanley and Bjorn Rundstrom, additional reporting by Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)