AMSTERDAM/STOCKHOLM, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Spyker Cars (SPYKR.AS) said it is still seeking financing for its acquisition of Saab after it set an ambitious target of returning the ailing Swedish auto brand to profit by 2012.

The tiny, loss-making Dutch luxury carmaker, which produces just a few dozen handmade sports cars per year, clinched an audacious deal to buy Saab from General Motors [GM.UL] last week.

A defunct brand until current Chief Executive Victor Muller revived the firm in 2000, Spyker hopes to win back customers for Saab by focusing on three or four niche models, eating up an anticipated 1 billion euros in development costs.

Spyker, which will hold a shareholders meeting on the deal on Feb. 12, said late on Monday Saab would return to profitability by 2012 -- a timeframe called into question by an Amsterdam analyst.

"It is quite ambitious to be profitable by 2012. I don't think sales will rebound that quickly," Jeroen Willard at Dutch brokerage AEK said. "I think it will be more like 2014-2015."

Shares in Spyker, which have risen more than 40 percent this year, were up 1.4 percent at 3.65 euros at 1127 GMT, compared with a 0.5 percent rise in the Amsterdam AEX .AEX index.

Saab produced just 20,791 cars last year as sales slumped to 39,903 from 94,751 in 2008, but aims to raise production to pre-crisis levels of about 100,000 to 125,000 with the help of a new sales and distribution strategy.

Spyker's Muller has told Reuters restoring confidence in the Saab brand and regaining lost customers is a key to its future. [ID:LDE60S28A]

FINANCING ISSUES

But one of his first tasks will be to shore up financing for the $74 million cash part of the deal.

Spyker said the first instalment of $50 million consists of $25 million borrowed from a Muller investment vehicle, and $25 million from an issue of shares, largely to GEM Global Yield Fund Ltd.

A second instalment of $24 million - payable on July 15, 2010 - has not yet been funded.

"Spyker has been approached by various investors to fund this instalment. Spyker intends to finance this amount primarily through senior debt," the company said, adding it has pledged assets to GM as security for the final payment.

Muller told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet the company had quite a lot of time to obtain the funding and had "many opportunities" to get the money.

NICHE PLAYER

Saab, which Spyker will run as a standalone company, will in future focus on three to four models: the 9-3, the new 9-5 and the new 9-4X sport utility vehicle for both the U.S. and European markets.

It will look into adding a fourth smaller car line, the 9-1, but this model is not part of the business plan and additional financing would be needed.

Both Spyker and Saab are loss-making, however, and IHS Global Insight auto analyst Ian Fletcher said in a recent note one of the key issues will be the ongoing cash situation of Saab.

"It remains to be seen whether this risk will pay off," he said.

Spyker said it is committed to the business plan, which was drawn up by Saab management over the past 10 months.

It will be partly financed by GM through $326 million of redeemable preference shares, favourable supply terms and deferred payments from Saab to GM, plus cash and a 400 million-euro European Investment Bank (EIB) loan.

(Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block and Mia Shanley; Editing by Greg Mahlich and John Stonestreet)