Yesterday we were quite busy giving 74StingSaab and his son car buying advice and it looks like this was the right way to spend the day since – on the surface – not much happened. Still I’ve found some stories on the interwebs that I’d like to bring up here.
From GP.se:
GP has over the weekend confirmed that Geely’s principal owner Mr Li visited government offices late last week.
Information for GP claims that Geely looking to buy Saab, but a spokesman with Zhejiang Geely Holding, Yang Xueliang writes in the mail something completely different to the GP:
– The reports in the Swedish media is not true. Geely is not interested to buy Saab. We met with their representative for a presentation, mostly as a courtesy to the Swedish Government and the company, when they contacted us for help.
ttela.se runs the same quote from Yang Xueliang:
Yang wrote about the issue on his blog on a Beijing-based website, but admits that the Swedish authorities, apparently Saab administrator Guy Lofalk, been in contact with the company.
They met and Geely listened, but it was mostly out of politeness, says Yang.
Without knowing all the details Geely more or less confirmed that they were approached by Swedish authorities. And the head of Geely fies around the globe to watch a presentation only to be nice.
di.se has an interview with Annie Lööf, the Swedish Minister of Enterprise, where she claims that she “will do everything that Saab will live on”. di.se tried to get an answer what that “everything” would be:
What does this mean concretely – for you to do everything that Saab will remain?
“As Minister for Enterprise and I’ve preparation responsibility for Saab issue and we are of course the question very thoroughly every day. Now the responsibility lies heavily on the Saab, and on the appointed administrator,” said Annie Lööf.
What does it mean for action over the issue is on your table?“The question is on my desk means I have a responsibility to monitor developments very closely and I and my colleagues do. But now in this mode is the reorganization and where there are laws about this, where the administrator has a very large responsibility in future developments ‘.
Further down in the article there is another interesting point:
Volvo owners, Chinese Geely, is the government’s wishful candidate in a sale of Saab, the sources indicated to both Di and DN. However, Geely’s public relations director Yang Xueliang, according to industry body Autmotive News China denies interest in taking over the Saab.
“There is much gossip right now and I do not comment on gossip at all,” is Annie Lööf commentary on the various tasks that abound.
But do you work in government actively Saab question now?
“Because of the delicate situation that Saab is in it is very important not to comment on all the events and developments in the pipeline,” said Annie Lööf.
So while the government says it can’t take an active role they seem to have a preferred candidate to take over Saab. The funny thing is that the intention of the reorganization was to buy some time to get the investors in, not to look for someone to take over Saab. But still, I might lack some details.
This morning di.se is running a story that Saab will ask for a new administrator:
Victor Muller is dissatisfied with Guy Lofalk as administrator and says that he is the government’s case. Now the car manufacturer to turn to the district court for a new administrator to be appointed. The Dagens Industri.
Among other bases of dissatisfaction in Lofalk attempt to redeem the loan from the European Investment Bank, EIB, instead of waiting for money from kinsesiska Pang Da and Youngman. Collateral that in this case goes to the state that can sell them.
“The government has tricked out Saab wanderings, for example, with real estate transactions, as it always has been sentence to run the company ruin. Allowing Saab burn money to go bankrupt. Victor is completely destroyed,” said a source with good insight into Saab Dagens Industri.
Cecilia Tisell, judges in Vänersborg, it is possible to change the administrator, but very unusual.
When Saab filed for reorganization asked you specifically about getting Guy Lofalk as administrator. One wishes now appear to regret.
“It was Kristina Geers, who suggested him and there was a trust. Now it turns out that he lives next door to Hans Lindblad and that he runs the government’s case. It is quite unlikely.” Says the source of the Times.
Hans Lindblad, Secretary of State and the resulting reorganization of the government’s behalf.
This is di.se, so let’s be a bit cautious and I personally don’t know if the fact that Lofalk and Lindblad live next to each other is enough for a conspiracy. But if Saab really takes that step and demands Lofalk to be replaced it would mean that there is some truth in the reports we could read over the weekend. The next few days will tell.
There seems to be a lot going on behind the scenes and – like it or not – we are just passengers right now, damned to sit and watch. All of us had hoped reorganization would make the ride less bumpy. Sadly this has not happened. But I still have good faith that Saab’s management team pulls the right strings to get Saab through this. Keep calm and carry on.
Late addition:
SVD says today is the big day: I took out that one since I featured it in another post / till72
Update…
I came across an interview with the Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg on SvD.se:
We have reports that Saab has run out of money and that reconstruction may need to be stopped. Do you think it’s a good idea that the former should take over the EIB loan?
– It’s the Economy Ministry in charge of communication for the Saab and the type of questions should be directed to them or to the administrator. I have no information about how they do things right now.
What is your contingency if Saab would go bankrupt?
The article continues …
– We have secured and planned so that resources are available to protect people for jobs would become unsafe. But we’ll see what the process leading up to.
The Russian banker Vladimir Antonov now appears to have given up hope of owning Saab. Antonov Swedish spokesman, Lars Carlstrom, has previously accused the government, although Anders Borg, to run a campaign against the Antonov and Saab. Question of ownership is stuck with the EIB, but the Swedish government has not told her – despite the fact that the former accepted him. It has previously flourished crime rumors about the Antonov, which sought to exonerate itself by its own investigation.
Have you personally any information about whether Vladimir Antonov engaged in anything criminal, such as money laundering?
– I have no reason to have some idea of the Antonov. That may be other people judge.
So he has no idea what is going on at Saab and no opinion on Antonov… 😉
Nice snippets Till. It’s messy but as someone who would be in a position to know said earlier today, “we have them right where we want them.”
Know your enemies…?
I sure hope they do.
This is so confusing… 🙁 First they write that Saab is not gonna fire Guy Lofalk and now they say that they are gonna fire him! No me myself is starting to think that this will be the end, but i still have my fingers crossed but it’s not easy 🙁
I think that we can assume that there are a couple of “inside sources” that have different views on the situation.
And apparently everybody talks to both sources.
The deciding factor will be the actions by Saab, not what any news media writes
Actually, I find these snipplets rather encouraging, as it sounds like they have the authority to kick out Guy Lofalk, or at least request a replacement.
I just hope can get a reconstruction administrator that isn’t a complete idiot.
I believe you are completely on the wrong track here. The previous reconstruction was successful, and if Saab had been able to gain independence earlier and had stuck to the business plan laid out with Koenigsegg, they would probably have been in going business now. What is good for VM is not necessarily good for Saab.
I think your view is a little simplistic. The Koenigsegg business plan was viable when Saab was still running. Once GM started shutting Saab down, the business plan’s starting assumptions became completely invalid.
Well, To be fair: my position might be a bit simplistic as well. It really isn’t entirely clear what Guy Lofalk’s motives are (this time around at least).
But, the statement: “what is good for VM is not necessarily good for Saab.” is completely bogus. VM has sacrificed a great deal and has put his reputation on the line for Saab.
It is true the other way around: “What is good for Saab is not necessarily good for VM”
nils
I partially agree with you. Lofalk has a responsibility to do what’s best for Saab, whereas VM, understandably is looking to protect his own investment. To explain further, and looking at an extreme hypothetical case, let’s say Lofalk had an offer from a company to purchase Saab for 1 kronor but with the agreement that they would take on all debts and invest 2 billion dollars – this could suit Saab but would be bad for VM who would get nothing for his shares.
However with this said, due to time constraints, I think that the best course of action is that Saab goes forward with Youngman and Pang Da. The real question is why Youngman are dragging their heels.
Thanks for the snippets!
At the moment we are indeed passengers, but I’m hoping that pretty soon we will know more:
– If Guy Lofalk were to pull the plug from the reorganization process, I’m sure that we’ll also hear reasons why …
– If money from Youngman/PangDa arrives, and the reorganization is continued, we know that Youngman/PangDa deal is more than pretty speeches.
+1
Nice reporting Till,
I don’t think for a second that Saab is in a position to kick anyone out. I would take these reports at face value, Swedgovt. has decided , it seems, it’s Youngman, or it done. The end run to Geely, it appears, was unsuccessful. VM has little influence at this point. If he were perhaps a Swede, he might have a better chance, he might have some local support. I get the impression from the media that he has not made a lot of freinds in the government.
I agree with you Chris; there are too much people involved and it gets more a case where differences in opinion start to become issues.
But above all Pang Da and Youngman must live up to their plans and promises.
If they are not able to make clear to the NDRC that the deadline for payment has passed and that so an urgent decision is needed in order to do what has been agreed; it will be their own responsibility that we now face this new situation.
It all should have been dealt with by now, if they are serious at least.
“If he were perhaps a Swede, he might have a better chance, he might have some local support. I get the impression from the media that he has not made a lot of freinds in the government.”
True, it seems you have to be of a certain kind to be successful here.
There are some possibilities to change administrator, as I mentioned here; then if Saab is in a position to do that, as you say, is a different matter.
Well, if the di, et al, rumours are true, it is as I said earlier: The politicians are stuck with the idea about Geely. The then Minister of Enterprise at least was very happy with the Volvo deal But one track record isn’t everything. What I mean is they don’t have the the expertise to judge, they might prefer one over the other, but what do they know?
As for the Youngman group, as I said yesterday, sorry for the repeat of the words, but it’s not a lengthy verbatim copy:
Youngman has to step forward if they want to be in the loop. It’s time now, very much so. No one else can do that on their behalf.
And with that I meant, it is so close now that they can almost forget about the escrow account etc. whatever. And apparently some representative from Youngman was in Sweden the other day.
Ah well, you couldn’t make this sh*t up, even if you tried.
+1
I agree…. YM has a “solid” deal on the table … all they have to do is transferring the money …
clearly if they do not do that the deal can be invalidated …. my impression is that they are buying time to have visibility on the OK from the NDRC in China
..Which isn’t unreasonable as if NDRC do not give green light, then any monies advance today are wasted….but without money today, reconstruction ends……chicken and egg situation
We’ll just have to wait and see… It ain’t over till it’s over!
So all the parties are in negotiations in Stockholm as we speak? This day could sure be one of those exciting “Breaking news!”-days 🙂
Fingers crossed
Griffin Up !!!
Hope for the best. It’s not easy anymore but it’s worth a trying!
I want to ask a question: What do you think of Annie Lööf? to me she seemes more serious than Maud Olofsson was but we’ll se further.
noooooooooooo, don’t tell me Maud is not there any more, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
tragedyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy !!!!
I would not bother thinking about the new minister. She’s very new, as you know, quite young; apart from being a minister she’s also a party leader, and they are now focusing on how to strengthen the support for the party, as well as the position within the government; and then this issue doesn’t fit the “agenda”. That, and the fact the that she also has other responsibilities as a minister, even though her portfolio is smaller than her forerunner, makes me think that she will tread very carefully. That doesn’t mean that some questions may arrive at her desk; but let’s hope things are solved without too much involvement from the politicians.