Ford’s Volvo Cars holds a small stake in Koenigsegg, frontrunner to buy General Motor’s Saab, adding more confusion to the deal.

According to business daily Dagens Industri, Volvo Cars will become part-owner of Saab if sports car maker Koenigsegg wins the race. It has turned out that Volvo holds a small stake in Koenigsegg.

The company, founded by Christian von Koenigsegg in 1994 to produce high-performance cars, has signed a declaration of intent to buy General Motor's crisis-hit car manufacturer Saab, according to a number of media sources.

During the years Christian von Koenigsegg has paid several employees and suppliers with stock shares in the public but not listed company. In early 2000 Koenigsegg hired a wind tunnel to perform tests in Volvo’s facilities. In return Volvo was paid 3,750 stocks in Koenigsegg. For that reason Volvo still appears on the list of owners, according to Euroclear, a provider of settlement and related services for bond, equity, fund and derivative transactions.

Koenigsegg’s largest owner is Norwegian Bård Eker, via the holding company Eker Group, with 49 percent of the votes, followed by Christian von Koenigsegg. In Marsh there were 111 owners of the company.

Volvo’s stakes are worth about 8,000 kronor (€760), according to Dagens Industri’s calculations.

Clearly, the tiny ownership share in Koenigsegg is not of any major importance to Volvo.

“I don’t know of any holdings [in Koenigsegg] and I haven’t been able to find any information”, said Volvos spokesperson Stefan Elfström to the newspaper.