There’s been two reports from the different sides of the Atlantic in the last 24 hours. One about Saab, the other about Koenigsegg and both questioning what the heck’s going on.
DN.se’s Ekonomi section had an article about Saab and the fact that they don’t appear to have their EIB loan stuff together yet.
JV has provided a translation:
The European Investment Bank has still not received sufficient information from Saab to make decisions on the loan to the company. Meanwhile, Riksgälden (the Swedish National Debt Office) is preparing to supply loan guarantees.
It’s almost half a year ago that Saab Automobile made contact with the European Investment Bank, EIB, to explore the possibilities for a loan. It’s still unclear whether the loan of 600 million dollars, corresponding to approximately SEK 4.5 billion, will be given.
At the EIB, the people in charge are waiting for information from Saab to be able to make a formal decision to do an evaluation of the company’s economy.
– What we are waiting for is financial information about the new Saab. We are for example looking at what the income statement and balance sheet will look like. We have to go through information from the company to assess whether the long-term financial planning for the new Saab really is viable, says Eva Srejber, Deputy Head of the EIB.
It’s ground that we’ve covered before, but this still baffles me to some degree.
Maybe the transaction needs to be completed before they can submit information as the applicant will be the new company? Whatever it is, it just seems strange that after all this time, with so much at stake, that this process wouldn’t be full-on in motion.
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I guess it brings out a little more the frustration at the lack of information from Saab’s potential new owners – Koenigsegg.
Personally, I’ve just come to expect that there won’t be any interviews with the key players until the transaction is complete. I still have a lot of confidence in their ability to get things done, but I’m still frustrated by the lack of reassurance they’ve offered.
I just hope that they’ll open the floodgates at that point and really give an a proper view of where they want to take Saab.
Car and Driver have just published a piece about Koenigsegg, and I guess it’s natural that they don’t take any issue with the silence at all. Unlike me, they’ve got a lot of other things to talk about.
Christian von Koenigsegg has, either by choice or lack of interest, given few interviews. It’s not because he doesn’t speak our language; his English is excellent, and he is a distinctive presence, looking a little like the villain in a James Bond film.
He declined an interview for this story and has pretty much declined them all except for a few given to the Swedish media, during which he said almost nothing of substance, which is not surprising as the Saab deal will likely not be finalized until the end of summer. “Our ambition is to build a Swedish car company with all that implies,” he told SVT, a Swedish public broadcaster.
I like the sound of that. I just wish we could hear more of it.
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