Last week we featured a pretty good presentation on Dutch television by Victor Muller and on the weekend we even got a version with subtitles!
I had a story forwarded to me by mail over the weekend, too, which is relevant to all this.
Present in the studio audience at the Pauw & Wittemann show were various members of the crew who organised the Saab Support Convoy in Holland.
I'll let Stephan continue....
A substantial delegation of the SSC NL organisation was invited to be present during the live broadcast. And we had to park our cars somewhere, so in true Amsterdam style we double parked. The camera liked it. When the camera shows the Saabs in the front of the building you can spot the shields of the SCC NL.Afterwards there was an informal meet & greet and VM received a SSC NL shield with the number 26.1. And yes we stayed calm and thanked him.
The live broadcast was fun, but not as interactive as we hoped. Afterwards the informal meet & greet made up for the earlier lack of interaction with the audience.VM seems very focused, and with great drive to make Saab a success.
Click to enlarge:
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Another note, IIRC, Spykers currently use a Toyota powerplant right? Does VM/Spyker have any plans to use Saab tech to help build an in house engine to be used in Spykers?
Victor Up!
Google translation, much more in the rinted edition.
Government Joran Hagglund ideally have liked to Saab ended up in Chinese hands. It says in an interview with Dagens Industri, where he also talks about the bidders and the unclear ownership situation.
"When the bids would be included in GM January 7 Spyker had a stack of contracts and marked changes. Nygrens gang had a two-page document, as well as the Genii and Carlström. Geniis press release was longer than the bid," said Joran Hagglund to DI.
He would have preferred a deal with Chinese BAIC or Geely Automobile "he says in the interview.
Was it a pity that there was something of the Chinese?
"Given that China is the large car market now, and will remain so for foreseeable future, it was a shame."
The government knows what the financiers behind the Spykers purchase of Saab is but refers questions about the ownership of Victor Muller, who now believes Joran Hagglund should publish the names.
Small quotations from the article:
-According to Hägglund, Koenigsegg lied, on the reason why Bishop left the deal.
- The process with old suitors after the K-egg breakdown was a joke.
On of the reemerging prospective buyers who where really keen on buying, but when check up by the government, the company did not exist and the person was personal bankrupt (Who could that be???) When confronted he said it was right but had forgotten to mention it!
- Genii´pressrelease was longer then the bid for Saab. Whit no serious financial backing.
- Muller must explain the finances. Muller is the only one with the whole picture according to Hägglund.
http://di.se/Avdelningar/Artikel.aspx?ArticleID=2010\02\01\369364§ionid=BilMotor
"Saab's savior would rather have seen Chinese Saab
Government bilsamordnare Joran Hagglund ideally have liked to Saab ended up in Chinese hands. It says in an interview with Dagens Industri, where he also talks about the bidders and the unclear ägarsituationen.I the last offer process around Saab Automobile Dutch Spyker competed against both the Luxembourg-based Genii Capital led by Lars Carlström, and a Swedish group of financiers led by Jan Nygren, a former vice president of the defense group Saab. But Spyker low horse lengths ahead.
"When the bids would be included in GM January 7 Spyker had a stack of contracts and marked changes. Nygrens gang had a two-page document, as well as the Genii and Carlström. Geniis press release was longer than the bid," said Joran Hagglund to DI.
He would have preferred a deal with Chinese BAIC or Geely Automobile "he says in the interview.
Was it a pity that there was something of the Chinese?
"Given that China is the large car market now, and will remain so for the foreseeable future, it was a shame."
The government knows what the financiers behind the Spykers purchase of Saab is but refers questions about the ownership of Victor Muller, who now believes Joran Hagglund should publish the names."
And noticing that Jörgen Trued was faster this time...
But if this is the case, the fate of Volvo will prove Mr Hägglund wrong or right!!
Is the Swedish gouvernment back in bashing-SAAB-mode??
A politician shouldn't allways say what he thinks, IMHO!!
I really could care less about the identity of the mystery financier...as a percentage of the deal, it's negligible over the long term. That Victor has rich contacts just gives me more confidence. Who do you personally know that you can ask for $74 million and get a yes?
Big fan of that guy.
I would imagine that his 'preference' for China would be in the context of the potential for some lest risky longevity. I doubt his government would offer guarantees to someone and just days later he'd come out and say "I wish we had done it for someone else".
Makes Spyker look bad and the government look incompetent - which is a double win for DI (after their efforts on the weekend).
http://beurs.z24.nl/Details.aspx?id=197400
For the record: if there are some extenuating circumstances here it might be that this article is made by DI.SE, and they are well known to somewhat hate SAAB. On the contrary; if this article is correct it just shows Mr Hägglund incompetence level.
All this is disturbing, but we are prepared to go through new weeks with more SAAB bashing from swedish media, aren't we? Norwegian Media is also just copying what the Swedish media is writing about SAAB so then I still have at least something to defend in my lunch hours the next couple of weeks.......
SAAB SPYKER AUTOMOBILE UP!
Cheers from Norway
-Olav-
Always on the longest road home when out there with my SAAB. Always!
This media
It doesn't worry me that the stock was down 28 cents and up 20 cents today compared to Friday.
not swedish etc so unsure of journalistic merit of DI but am wondering if the people of Trollhattan have a totally different mindset, outlook on life when compared to the remaining population.
i grew up knowing swedish engineering/manufacturing was the best in the world alongside west germany.
while the germans continue to develop and prosper the swedes appear [to me] to be waiting for the world to end.
what is going on over there?
I agree to 100%. We should do something. I have just written a somewhat longer critical comment on DI.se on their way to write down Saab. They really use any possible occasion to create negative headlines about Saab. I reacted to an article where they reported current sales figures of the automotive industry headlined "Showroom hot again - but Saab ice cold".
But the event was organised by Saab enthousiasts for Saab enthousiasts. That's the bottomline ;)
I'm not saying that Hägglund is lying. I'm sure he isn't. He's just carefully choosing which parts of the truth that he wants to reveal. There's nothing wrong with that, it's Politics 101. It's up to the media to see through it and fill in the blanks.
Some Hägglund quote snippets:
"Saab wasn't a complete company. Saab was basically a cost centre within GM, where costs for research and overhead were dumped. To really find that which was Saab has actually been going on until November, December. So it wasn't all that easy for Koenigsegg to buy something which wasn't a finished company."
How did Nygren and the other bidders compare to Spyker?
"There's no comparison. When the bids were to be submitted to GM on January 7, Spyker had a stack of deals and highlighted changes. The Nygren gang had a two-page document, as did Genii and Carlström. Genii's press release was longer than the bid."
Was there any serious financing behind it?
"No."
Were you alarmed by Muller?
"All the things that turned up, we knew about. We had vetted him minutely and confronted him. People can have dealings with tax authorities, that happens to Swedish business leaders too, but you have to put it into proportion."
Spyker have a history of great hopes and weak sales. How did you view that?
"People must be allowed to do business, good or bad. But of course we noted that it would have been better if there had been a big strong industrial player, but there wasn't one, and then you have to decide on the ones that are available."
You have handed the question about financiers of the Saab deal on to Victor Muller, but he hasn't answered. How do you feel about that?
"There could be reasons for that, but I think it's up to him to disclose them."
Do you feel that he should give an answer?
"Yes, I do."
Are you aware of the financiers?
"We have been given an accounting, yes."
Can you see any reasons why he doesn't publically reveal them?
"Not really. Unless there are agreements that mean it's too soon for various interested parties to come forward. Only he can answer that. He's the only one who has that picture."
Are you sure that the Russian Antonov family are out of the picture?
"They are out as part owners."
Are they out as lenders?
"He'll have to account for that himself. We can't do the puzzle through all the links backwards, what all the constructions look like, but it has been important to us and to GM that they aren't in as part owners."
Thank you for this more complete information about the Hägglund interview with DI. When I was reading the online article on DI.se I had the impression that the citations made were very much out of context. This is clearly a more interesting reading. I can understand the Hägglund line of reasoning that they would have preferred a stronger industrial buyer.
However, I am getting tired of the way DI.se reports on Saab. In this case, they used the interview to post their headline "Hägglund: I would have preferred a Chinease buyer". Now that the deal is done they spend their time with questioning the deal and building up negativity. One certainly can have questions, but this sensationalist headlining is really ridiculous.
I would suggest reading the first half of my last comment first, to understand the context of the interview and why Hägglund is revealing these things.
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State secretary Jöran Hägglund has been hailed as the saviour of Saab.
In a candid DI interview, he reveals his wish for Chinese help in the relaunch of Saab, and is unable to conceal his disappointment at the end result.
He condemns Saab's reconstruction process, criticizes Koenigsegg's lies and calls the latest bidding round a joke with unserious players.
Now he demands that Spyker owner Victor Muller accounts for the financiers behind the purchase.
"Pity that it didn't work out with the Chinese"
Jöran Hägglund, state secretary for Minister of Industry Maud Olofsson, has during the past year been the government's coordinator of the work with the automotive crisis. The situation turned urgent in February last year, when Saab was put into reconstruction and lawyer Guy Lofalk was set to lead the work of finding a new owner for the company.
"It was a strange process to have some sort of public bidding, and it brought both high and low in for a look. It was like scrambling through the Yellow Pages for automotive companies and inviting them in. And then they still ended up with three. One could wonder why those particular three and no others were chosen. Both Beijing Auto (the BAIC industrial group which was later to buy used Saab tools from GM, editor's note) and Geely were interested."
Was it a pity that it didn't work out with the Chinese?
"Considering that China is the big car market now, and will be for the foreseeable future, it was a pity. It's no longer the most important to be biggest in the American market, instead it's about being biggest on the Chinese one. The prerequisite for succeeding there is to be in among the leading, bigger players, and in that context Beijing Auto and Geely are interesting leads."
And a more interesting lead than Koenigsegg?
"Yes, I think so. Koenigsegg and Spyker have in common that enthusiasts are behind them, and that doesn't have to be bad, but I think that with the backing that they (BAIC and Geely) have from the Chinese state and Chinese banks, that would be a more long-term foundation."
How did you react to GM's declaration of intent to sell Saab to Koenigsegg?
"We were a bit surprised. We met a large number of interested parties, and Koenigsegg was a group that had come together rather quickly. None of the people in Koenigsegg had much experience in the car industry, or in negotiations. After they had bailed out, when we had a follow-up meeting with them, they told us that far into the negotiations, they had missed some important components. So in spite of all the deals, they didn't have a whole car."
How were you affected by the question marks about the financing and the role of American Mark Bishop?
"That was negative. We had a big controversy with the Koenigsegg gang along the way. They gave us a false picture of why Mark Bishop bailed out. We figured it out another way, confronted them and explained that if they were to keep talking to us, they should be sincere. That made us lose speed. They didn't give truthful answers to direct questions. We don't ask that they should tell the whole truth, but you shouldn't lie in the face of a negotiating partner."
Business man with a dubious background
The row concerned that Mark Bishop, a shy business man with a dubious background, was claimed to have left Koenigsegg as an owner and main financier of the Saab bid, but was later, in early fall, found to still be in the game, since he was trying to sell off his Koenigsegg shares.
But Jöran Hägglund stresses that Christian von Koenigsegg wasn't guilty of the lies, and he doesn't put the whole blame for the breakdown in the negotiations at the end of November, when Koenigsegg withdrew, on the Ängelholm sports car maker.
"Saab wasn't a complete company. Saab was basically a cost centre within GM, where costs for research and overhead were dumped. To really find that which was Saab has actually been going on until November, December. So it wasn't all that easy for Koenigsegg to buy something which wasn't a finished company."
What have GM said about the Koenigsegg negotiations now afterwards?
"GM themselves say that they were 'miles, miles away' from being completed. There were a great many contracts and details that took time, since Augie Fabela (American financier with a background in Russian telecom company Vimpelcom) who ran the negotiations didn't have any experience from the automotive business.
After Koenigsegg withdrew, a new process was started with old and new bidders. How do you view that today?
"It was a big joke. We did a background check on one guy who had really been into us. It turned out his company didn't exist, and he had gone personally bankrupt in October. When we confronted him, he stated that that was true, but that he had forgotten to mention it."
Were there any of the interested parties that you took to in the December process?
Especially Beijing Auto. What I know is that Beijing Auto are still very interested in a cooperation with Saab, and I think that can turn out very well. We've said so to the Saab management and to Spyker."
How did you regard GM's decision to wind down Saab?
"I fully respected it, but it became ambiguous when in the same breath, they said that they would look at any bid that came up. I think that from December until now, they crassly started to calculate what a wind-down would cost, adjusted the price to that and wanted to come to a quick conclusion."
Meticulous vetting of Muller
In the third bidding process for Saab, Spyker were back in, but so too were various consortia such as Luxembourg-based Genii Capital, with Swedish spokesperson Lars Carlström, and a Swedish group led by former vice Prime Minister Jan Nygren. However, that a former political heavyweight, who had also been vice CEO of the Saab defence group, got involved in the process didn't create any pressure on the Industry Department.
"Not other than that we've spent considerable time listening to him and his gang and other interested parties, since we felt that we should at least hear what they had to show for themselves."
How did Nygren and the other bidders compare to Spyker?
"There's no comparison. When the bids were to be submitted to GM on January 7, Spyker had a stack of deals and highlighted changes. The Nygren gang had a two-page document, as did Genii and Carlström. Genii's press release was longer than the bid."
Was there any serious financing behind it?
"No."
Were you alarmed by Muller?
"All the things that turned up, we knew about. We had vetted him meticulously and confronted him. People can have dealings with tax authorities, that happens to Swedish business leaders too, but you have to put it into proportion."
Spyker have a history of great hopes and weak sales. How did you view that?
"People must be allowed to do business, good or bad. But of course we noted that it would have been better if there had been a big strong industrial player. But there wasn't one, and then you have to decide on the ones that are available."
You have handed the question about financiers of the Saab deal on to Victor Muller, but he hasn't answered. How do you feel about that?
"There could be reasons for that, but I think it's up to him to disclose them."
Do you feel that he should give an answer?
"Yes, I do."
Are you aware of the financiers?
"We have been given an accounting, yes."
Can you see any reasons why he doesn't publically reveal them?
"Not really. Unless there are agreements that mean it's too soon for various interested parties to come forward. Only he can answer that. He's the only one who has that picture."
Are you sure that the Russian Antonov family are out of the picture?
"They are out as part owners."
Are they out as lenders?
"He'll have to account for that himself. We can't do the puzzle through all links backwards, what all the constructions look like, but it has been important to us and to GM that they aren't in as part owners."
Political mudslinging
The Social Democrats have pointed out that the then Prime Minister Göran Persson traveled to Detroit and GM the last time Saab was threatened, and have claimed that Sweden has been represented at too low a level with a state secretary. In connection with Jöran Hägglund's latest trip to Detroit, critics scoffed that he didn't get to meet the top GM management. Out of respect for the negotiations, Jöran Hägglund kept quiet and didn't reveal that he actually did meet GM boss Ed Whitacre.
"I think there has been a great deal of political mudslinging in Sweden. It has also been argued that the Germans sent Angela Merkel, and I can only note that that wasn't particularly successful. Our conclusion has been that it's at least as important to have established contacts, a trust and that the opposite party knows what it is you want. We've developed that with GM without it having been the Prime Minister who made the calls."
Have GM asked for higher-level representation from Sweden?
"No."
Do you believe in a happy ending for Volvo as well, in the Geely negotiations?
"It's too soon to tell. Everything can happen in a negotiation. But if they go all the way with Geely, I think it can turn out very well. I'm strengthened in that opinion after having been to China and met representatives of the government."
Dagens Industri
Text: Fredrik Sjöshult
Photo: Niklas Larsson
Indeed a puzzling interview. I'm totally suprised that Hägglund is openly discussing and revealing things which clearly are confidential. The guy seems to lack common sense and basics of business ethics and practices.
I mean, somebody said the Antonov family could be somehow linked to ilegal trading with weapons , on the other side the chinese gouvernment(the owner of BAIC) has sold weapons to regions with an UN weapon empbargo.
Maybe some of the IP of GM could end (illegally) in Russia, but we also know what China thinks about IP.
Still hoping for plan B for Volvo, no matter what Mr. Hägglund may say.
I think such accusations are customary regarding those large defence orders. With that kind of money there is a lot to lose, and a lot to win by making your opponent look bad. Bribery or no bribery, the accusations will allways show up.
Saab Up!