VA & VM in Stockholm
April 26, 2011 in Uncategorized
We have recieved information that Vladimir Antonov and Victor Muller will be in Stockholm today. We have also heard rumors of a press conference at Grand Hotel today… another day of waiting and hoping…
I’m on my way to Mallorca and then Tenerife after that so I leave the site in the hands of my trusted friends 
Per said on April 26, 2011
I think this will be s good day.
Bravada from GMI said on April 26, 2011
They’d better save the money they’ll spend on renting out the venue and hire a professional Investor Relations person. Or just have the people already employed do some actual work. A good PPT would take a day to make and could completely turn Saab’s fortunes around.
Khrisdk said on April 26, 2011
I am very sure that the people at Saab is doing some serious work, and have been doing so while the rest of us had a nice long Easter Holiday.
Bravada from GMI said on April 26, 2011
I am pretty sure of that myself, but there seems to be a lot of effort expended with little result. That’s bad management in my book.
At any rate, I’d like a PPT detailing the Saab business plan that would become the talk of town, instead of “Saab has no cash and will fold”.
KaiC said on April 26, 2011
I am drinking my coffe waiting for the sunrise : )
Patrik B said on April 26, 2011
More speculations, rumors and maybes… My nerves can’t take much more!
kaiger said on April 26, 2011
+1
OliverH said on April 26, 2011
That would be a F5 pressing day
Waiting fpr positive results.
Tobias said on April 26, 2011
There are some news from Spyker this morning:
http://www.spykercars.nl/download/artikel/Release_EIB_260411.pdf
Let us hope, it gets a good day!!
alextraian79 said on April 26, 2011
The newspaper(Göteborgs-Posten dail) has reported that Saab had sought a crisis meeting with the Swedish government over the Easter weekend, but the government it is claimed rejected the request.-From THE LOCAL.SE
They don’t care if the factory closes.”VOLVO will buy it and run it” is said by Swedish newspapers.And know the swedish goverment abandoned us.Who is next ?
Let’s face it.We are fighting alone.
Tobias post gave me some strength.Hoping for the best.
StefanH STHLM (www.bmsg.se/saab sales.pdf) said on April 26, 2011
Thanks Tobias. the press release gave me a little bit more confidence.
Before that I feared the press conference would give us a “koenigsegg” statement.
(No clouds though over our friends Koenigsegg, they tried hard 2009.)
BTW. I will check if its possible to switch my 9-3x into a 9-5 without loosing too much, as its in a lease program.
SaabSouth said on April 26, 2011
The Swedish press really should be ashamed of themselves. Do they not realise how important it is to keep National Brands going. Look in the UK to what happened to Triumph, Rover, Austin they all perished never to be seen again.
Saab is capable of surviving but could do without the press jumping on their backs every 5 minutes – poor journalism at it’s best!
Toby K said on April 26, 2011
luckily though all the brit stuff was shite apart from Bentley and Jag-and Aston-Martin only one of those now remains Brit.
The Swedes must hang on to Saab-if it can survive one more year the future is so bright!!
Saab is a fine product-it should survive.
Bravada from GMI said on April 26, 2011
I am afraid the press release gives little confidence – it only states the obvious, that Spyker was surprised by EIB’s stance and had no fallback plan ready. For what I have learned, it seems that EIB’s reply was forseeable, and indeed Saab’s cash flow plan has been very shaky since at least the beginning of 2011. It does not instill confidence to learn that only now options to rectify that are being explored.
Saab has been flogged publicly for missing sales targets and not delivering for many months prior, and they have admitted in Spyker’s annual report press release that their cash flow position is very uncertain, so it wouldn’t have made much more PR damage to have started all the Antonov proceedings perhaps even back in 2010, announcing the need for additional financing alongside the revised (down) sales projections.
I remain confident that Saab will survive, and whoever gets to pick up the fallout will get a bargain. It’s a terrible shame though that they have to go through it, and it will surely do profound damage to the company and the Swedish economy. All the parties involved should feel ashamed for allowing for this to happen.
Pedro said on April 26, 2011
100% agreed. There should have been a Plan B in place from the beginning.
Patrik B said on April 26, 2011
I think that selling the building was Plan B! Plan A have always been to let Antonov in as an owner.
For some reason things came to a halt two weeks ago and they had to do an emergency execute of Plan B in parallel of preparing for Plan A.
Audun said on April 26, 2011
+1
Bravada from GMI said on April 26, 2011
Well, this was hardly a well-prepared plan, if they seem to have only started exploring it recently and had expected the EIB consent to come at their terms. I also cannot fathom why Antonov couldn’t have applied for share ownership at an earlier date.
I do believe now that Saab needs another party who would not only bring in additional financing, but also managerial stability and long-term forward planning, and will rebuild trust in the brand and the company. VA’s comments on Twitter and Lars Carlstrom’s statements in public do not help give them those qualities at all.
SAABNUT said on April 26, 2011
The path forward ( or rather the ardeous path forward) must perhaps be:
1)
Settle the immideate approval of the slale – leaseback of SAAB properties / production facilities
and the restructsure of the EIB loans linked to this. This will genererate som despereately ‘needed cash to resume daily operations.
2)
Get V A into SAAB as a recognized partowner – and thus financeer and business developer
obviously with the influence and mandates linked to his investment.
3)
Perhaps the EIB loans, with their severe restrictions linked to environmental, safety technology and high interest rates, do not longer serve SAAB – if new owners can refinance and replace the
EIB loans in order to get the freedom to manage SAAB differently.
4)
Further capital will be needed – the disapointing sales, delayed start-up 2010 and now again 2011, consumer confidence and the backlog of development cost for the new line of modells have simply killed the business modell approved last year – recapitalization, new investors and
a full recognition of the past and future problems will have to be recognized.
Obviously any investor will also have to get influence and controll to the degree
As of now – a recapitalization through the stock exchange can only succeed if some major investors like V A himself and other credible investors took the lead – but again – this is not possible untill the EIB/ VA partownership/ sale leaseback of SAAB property have been settled.
And this take precious time that erode SAABs confidence among suppliers and customers.
At the same time SAAB management have to resume, keep and maintain their relationship with key suppliers, motivate their exhausted staff and engineers, restore consumer and customer confidence …
This seem as an herculean effort – but I for sure hope that V M, V A and their team can do it.
We do not know the ultimate motives of V A:s die hard interest in SAAB – obviously, as a businessman, he sees opportunities and come-back to profit as realistic.
I would be surprised if he and VM does not have grander plans to develop the Russian/Chinese markets – SAAB is a mini powerhouse of engineering skills, a well known brand, production capaacity and automobile know-how that can be turned back to profit – but major recapitalization and broadening of markets is desperately needed.
As VM have stated – when can you find a full fledged automobile producer, such as SAAB, on the market?
Keeping my fingers crossed for positive news and an amicable solution.
Joe___ said on April 26, 2011
Seem like we are approaching a moment of truth with considerable PR stakes for the centre-right government. VA/AN appearing as underdog fighters doing everything in their power to save jobs fighting against illogical bureaucracy. Media reporting about imminent subcontractor lay offs.