The Swedish government offered Saab conditional backing for a deal to free up cash for the company (see previous story here), whose production lines have been stopped for two weeks as Saab didn't pay suppliers. "We have decided to allow the Debt Office to conclude an agreement with Saab," said enterprise minister Maud Olofsson during a news conference on Friday.
The government has approved a proposal from the Debt Office to allow Saab to sell real estate, including the production plant, to Russian financier Vladimir Antonov and then lease it back from him. The minister said this deal would bring €30 million to Saab in the first phase, although the real estate was worth much more than that.
Russian bank-owner Vladimir Antonov was one of Spyker's major shareholders before the Dutch-based company bought Saab from General Motors. Antonov was forced to sell his share before GM approved the sale, but now it seems Antonov is back in the game. The Swedish government agreed to the deal as the real estate was held as collateral for a 400 million euro loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to Saab, which the Debt Office guaranteed.
Olofsson said that the agreement means that the size of the EIB loan would now fall to 280 million euros. "This means in practice that the exposure of taxpayers falls as the size of the loan falls," Olofsson told reporters on Friday. However, the Swedish government had set conditions to the deal. These were that Saab had to get a market price for the property and to have access to production facilities. In addition, the payment had to take place through a European bank without links to Antonov and questions surrounding the buyer had to be cleared up.
What this all means is that from now on, Antonov will have a say in Saab’s future. Pending government approval, he may also buy a stake in the company.
By Dan Mihalascu
Source: Reuters
6 Comments:
Saab may not be the best car or the best priced car but there is something about saab that make me want to see saab survive and live on. I hope the best for saab.
Well, I was hoping that Saab would make it, but this doesn't bode well for Saab's future, among the other problems too. Would you purchase a Saab today knowing all that is happening? Count me out.
The problem for the future is to be able to produce something to sell...the old 9-3 and the '9-5 Insignia' at an Audi or Mercedes price is not a way to earn money. The saab lovers want something special with the ADN of the trademark. I hope that will be possible if they take the risk to make something different. If not, they are dead, and it's sad because it is one of the best history in the carmarket (and the Chinese will take it for peanuts like they had MG or Rover....)
Looks like Saab is going down the MG Rover route of selling off everything it owns of any real value, just to generate cash to keep the company going. It didn't work for MG Rover, and it won't work for Saab. MG Rover generated an additional £267 million on top of the £1 billion in cold hard cash and assets they were left by BMW, and they still went out of business within 5 years. Saab won't get very far with €30 million.
Told ya so.
Spyker bit off more than it could chew.
this was kind of obvious, Atonov was there since inception...and he's been re-assuring everyone via tweets, that there just is no problem for SAAB ...as long as he's there....it's just a matter of time before he's fully inducted into the company...
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