SaabsUnited.com

People asked in the last days where Victor Muller was, well it seems like Di found out.

According to DI, a US investor plans to be part owner of Saab.

A major U.S. investor plans to become a part owner of Saab Automobile, which would provide opportunities to organize the plant. It said a source familiar with the Saab to the Financial Times.

Saab hopes that the agreement must be finalized by the end of the week or weekend, according to Di’s source.

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There are many of us that do not favor Dagens Industri when it comes to reporting news on the situation for Saab. Yesterday evening I read a post on their site with the headline “Demands on Saab gathers at Kronofogden” (Kronofogden = sort of national financial enforcement authority). The article very shortly summons that over 100 suppliers demands/claims have been sent to them so they can recover the money from Saab. By the end of June there were about 80 cases at Kronofogden with a total sum of about 80 million SEK, and today that sum is higher with more than 100 cases.

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Original post here: Riksgälden retar upp EIB.

E24/SvD Näringsliv reporter Jonas Fröberg (according to my personal opinion a rather fair and good journalist which writes well about the automotive industry) have made an interesting analysis of the situation with Saab.

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- On the question of why the government did not say a clear YES to Vladimir Antonov, Maud is avoiding the question as usual by stating that they have not said no…

- She did point out that Saab had very good products coming that were well received in the media and that Saab could have a good future by selling these products…

- She is very happy that Pang Da was interested…

- They are positive to decrease the government guarantees if needed

Very tough questions, she is obviously stressed…

Basically she said the same thing as always, she is sorry but wants to do nothing…

Is the future for Saab as unknown as ever… or?

With these words, Robert Collin, whom I spoke with yesterday starts another great article in Aftonbladet.

According to my contacts in Trollhättan last night, the 270 million SEK from Chinese Pang Da has arrived to Saabs account. Together with the same amount from Gemini, it is enough to pay the suppliers and restart the production.

Yesterday Anders Borg, Sweden’s finance minister, was forced to step out of the shadows and say something about Saab, the task of which until this point he let Maud Olofsson handle.

He said ” I hope it works out for Saab”. If he is serious, I do hope that he tells this to Eva Srejber, Vice president of the EIB. They became close friends while working together at the Swedish Central Bank for over 10 years and Eva got her job at the EIB thanx to Anders Borg. She is the one who have kept the money that was promised to Saab. Its time to show the cards!

Original Story Here

It has been two years since Maud Olofsson said that “Volvo and Saab cars produces error” and Labour Minister Sven Otto Littorin filled in with “you need not take a brain surgeon to understand that they are building the wrong cars.”
Six months later, when the end seemed near for Saab, Olofsson suggested that “the Saab factory can start building wind turbines”. Finance Minister Anders Borg and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has stayed away from Saab affair, but April 27 of this year, Reinfeldt not be silent anymore, “Of course I am worried that Saab does not produce and sell cars for profit that people want to buy ”.
Since the financial crisis for nearly three years ago, and the car industry crisis began six months later, the government has not said a single positive word about the Swedish car industry.
Volvo would be owned by China if the government signaled a better industrial policy environment in Sweden? Would Saab still hanging by a thread? Hardly.

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It seems as if its more than just us enthusiasts who read SaabsUnited, Automotive News featured RedJ’s fast response on this mornings press-release by showing off where they got their news from:

A link to the video clip here: http://www.autonews.com/article/20110516/VIDEO/305169821/1439

And a BIG THANX to Pierre for spotting this! =)

According to Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) who most often publish real facts and not wild speculations a lot is pointing in the direction of Mr Antonov when looking at who is the man behind Gemini Investment Fund.

The fund owned 11% of Spyker Cars in 2009. At the same time Mr Antonov makes a statement in the investigation report performed by Kroll, which was a report, ordered by the Swedish NDO, that it is one of Mr Antonov’s business partners who is the person behind the Gemini Fund. This person is also said to be a client in one of Mr Antonov’s banks. The name of that person is classified according to the report.

There is a possibility that the bank that person is a customer of is Latvijas Krajbanka, a latvian bank which is currently being established in Stockholm.

Gemini Investment Funds website is located on internet servers belonging to Converse Group which in turn is controlled by Mr Antonov.

FROM TT:
- I’m very happy that Saab seems to have found a solution together with a partner who seem to have more financial muscles, and this is very good, say Maud Olofsson (center party politician)
- I have said it all along, for a company to survive in the long run, private investors need to be prepared to come up with more money.
Olofsson thinks its too early to say that the crisis for Saab is over, since there is still not yet enough information about the deal to come. The government have read a memorandum of understanding that has been established between the two companies and they have also been provided with some more information from Saab.
- The government knows too little to be able to take some kind of stand right now. With this settlement a new communication with the NDO needs to be established according to Olofsson.
- So far we know nothing about the details in this memorandum of understanding. This will result in a deal, Saab will communicate with the NDO and then the NDO will look into how it might affect the guarantees that the government has provided.

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There was no mention before the show that anything about Saab was to be mentioned in this nights issue of Agenda in SVT.

However they interviewd GP (Göteborgsposten) Economy journalist about Mr Vladimir Antonov, and I must say that it was in general, very positive

(first post from WordPress on my iPad btw)