Update: A source close to SU says that Youngman are back in the race. The receivers are now back in touch with Youngman.
Several stakeholders are critical of the way the bankruptcy gets handled. TTela reports: “What are the receivers doing? That is the question posed by several stakeholders concerning Saab’s bankruptcy – Youngman’s advances are rejected, the Swedish stakeholders receives no feedback while Semcon could be getting their hands on some of the estate.”.
Fredrik Sidahl, CEO of FKG (An interest group for suppliers in Scandinavia), points out that the receivers were invited to visit Youngman’s facilities in China, but will not be represented today. “Every proposal for a complete solution should be carefully examined”. He notes that the receivers have not been in touch with neither himself nor any of his member companies.
Instead, among others, IF Metall (one of the unions) will meet with Youngman.
Lars Holmqvist, CEO of CLEPA, is also critical: “One can voice different opinion of Youngman, but they are the only ones truly familiar with the case after having spent half a year negotiating with the company. For other interested parties it would take months before a complete solution could be presented. There is no available time for that.”
“Youngman has a plan involving the next generation 9-3, producing a new Lotus in the Saab factory and access the Phoenix technology. They should be considered.”
On the contrary, the bankruptcy estate is running out of cash. “They are forced to divest assets in order to operate properly”.
Divesting assets makes it harder to reach a complete solution. Semcon seems to be getting closer to acquiring certain assets. Saab AB has also been mentioned having similar interests.
“There are assets that are interesting to many, but if these are divested what remains could be worth nill. And that could cause problems finding a solution that covers everything” says Darko Davidovic, General Counsel for IF Metall.
Saab AB’s spoke person Erik Magni says “We are interested in Saab’s engineers, through Combitech, which is something we have announced. That is all I know.”
CLEPA’s Lars Holmqvist thinks it starts smoldering [I have no idea how to translate “pyra” in this sentence — going with Google for now] with his member companies. “They have debts of 1.5 billion SEK. If Saab gets split up they will not be able to recover debts. They want the production to restart. I do not want to make threats, but many big suppliers are staffed with lawyers who they can assign to look into this matter.”
TTela has not been able to reach Semcon and the receivers about this – and other matters. The receiver yesterday called for a press conference on Saturday.
I am really sad when i read this!
But i can understand why it is going that way.
Let’s hope Youngman will be the new owner, it seems that that is the best sollution (so far).
Come on! Keep it together now! What are the receivers doing?
That Youngman update sounds interesting.
Youngman Up! đ
What is really is going on ?
I don’t know swedish law, but if cash has ran out and somebody puts money on the table,
can It be rejected ?
The creditors should have something to say about this, they have the biggest economical interest to get their money back !
I preserve Youngman, they should have enough funds to get SAAB back in the business.
Out’s twice “is” ….
The creditors will never get all money back, no matter who buys SAAB. Also Youngman has never and will never say “just write your price, put as many zeros as you want”. It is tough negotiations.
As I said before, the administrators must get as much money as they can for SAAB. They must not pay attention if someone wants to buy SAAB and continue as car company or produce windmills. Sad but true.
interesting idea Ivo, not gaining any traction it seems, but could be near impossible to align creditors as there are a range of opinions held by them.
Aligning all creditors would probably be impossible, but maybe it would take only a handful suppliers..?
Definitively an interesting idea, but one that must have crossed their own minds by now..?
A deal where GM isn’t involved and Saab might make a Sonett in the foreseable future? Yes please!
Didn’t I read somewhere, here I believe, that the new 900 was 55% GM technology? If so, why fool yourselves in thinking the Chinese are the right buyer? If the new 9-5, 9-3, 9-4x and the new 900 are all or more than half GM, aren’t we living in fantasy land?
No means no to GM.
It has also been mentioned that the GM IP content was around or less than 10%. We just don’t know.
Ivo
The 9-5 is supposed to be the main issue GM had with Saab changing hands.
The 9-5 has new suspension, HUD, various sensors (parking, wiping, lane dep warning, hi-beam, etc), Variable Effort Steering, a cover for the cupholder that opens smoothly, and a direct-injection engine to mention a few.
It could possibly be the Epsilon platform itself..?
Not to sound negative but, for every positive revival news, GM has to stick their hands in a kill a deal. GM should leave well enough alone!