Swedish luxury carmaker Koenigsegg said Tuesday it was giving up its bid to acquire Saab Automobile from its US parent company General Motors, saying costly delays made the deal too uncertain.

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The announcement plunged Saab's future into doubt.

"We regret that after six months of intense and goal-oriented work we have come to the painful and difficult conclusion that we are not going to be able to carry out the acquisition of Saab Automobile," the head of the company, Christian von Koenigsegg, said in a statement.

Koenigsegg announced in September that it had teamed up with Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co Ltd (BAIC) to buy Saab from GM.

But it still needed a 400-million-euro (600-million-dollar) loan from the European Investment Bank and wanted the Swedish government to act as a guarantor.

Swedish media have suggested that Saab was running short of money to continue its day-to-day operations, and doubts have flourished among experts about whether Koenigsegg would have the expertise to run a major car company.

Koenigsegg Group, founded in 1994, has just 45 employees and produces 18 high-end sports cars a year at more than one million euros (1.4 million dollars) each.

Saab, by contrast, employs 3,400 people in Sweden alone and sold just over 93,000 cars worldwide in 2008.