MUMBAI: Mahindra & Mahindra, India’s largest utility vehicle and tractor maker is again in the race to acquire a stake in Swedish premium car maker Saab . M&M, maker of the utility vehicle range (Scorpio, Xylo and XUV500) and the Verito brand of cars may become a part-owner (with the Hong-Kong based National Electric Vehicle or NEV, its current owner, as the bankrupt car maker needs funds to maintain operations.Two potential Asian investors are suitors for rescuing Saab from bankruptcy. One of them being India’s Mahindra & Mahindra, a technology magazine Ny Teknik said without specifying the source for the news. To solve the economic problems, Nevs is negotiating with M&M about a collaboration, it said. M&M declined to comment on the development.A spokesperson for the company said it will not comment on market speculation . Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the group had evinced interest for Saab a few years back just like the auto major showed interest in other global brands like Aston Martin and Jaguar LandRover.Pawan Goenka, ED of M&M was recently quoted as saying “the auto major has been eyeing a marquee brand for some time now, it wants the parent brand to turn premium even as it places Ssangyong in the luxury space.”Ssangyong the Korean SUV brand which M&M acquired in 2011, is predominantly a sports utility vehicle maker. According to VG Ramakrishnan, MD at Frost & Sullivan, M&M’s interest would be in Saab’s engineering and design capabilities. In terms of sales, it’s not a big player in the market.