Saab bankruptcy Archives

SCNA Has Won Approval For Its Chapter 11 Plan

July 17, 2013 by JasonPowell

While checking for what Saab news I could come across this morning, I came across a completion to the almost year and a half bankruptcy process of Saab Cars North America. The article was posted yesterday at 7:58PM and stated that Saab’s US unit gets nod for ch. 11 liquidation.

Some of the important points from the Law360 post are below:

The estate of Saab Cars North America Inc. is expected to have a liquidating trust of about $20 million to use for disbursements that will see administrative, priority and secured claims paid in full, attorneys for the company said in court.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher S. Sontchi said “good lawyering” helped navigate what began as a rancorous case into the home stretch of a seemingly peaceful close.
“This is certainly a much better result than it looked like it would be in the beginning,” Judge Sontchi said from the bench. “I’m happy to sign the [confirmation] order.”
Under the plan, all classes of creditors except those holding unsecured and equity claims are expected to receive a full recovery.
Unsecured creditors owed $77 million are expected to receive anywhere between a 25- to 82-percent recovery depending on the success of certain estate causes of action and whether Saab AB and Saab Parts AB eliminate or substantially reduce each of their intercompany claims against SCNA, according to the disclosure statement.
Equity holders are expected to receive nothing.

Ally Financials claim of 18.5 million will be listed as satisfied after reaching a settlement in May, according to the court records.

Under the settlement agreement, Ally will see about 3.8 million from the sale of vehicles that had been in port with the rest, about 13.6 million going back to the SCNA estate.

I had reached out to Tim Colbeck to ask for his thoughts on yesterdays decision and his response was that “Yesterday was bittersweet, in that it represented the final disposition of SCNA, but also the result was as good as it could have been given the circumstances.”

Yes, this really does seem to be as good as it could get given all the circumstances surrounding it and it feels good to see that a large number of creditors are expected to receive a full recovery. This chapter is nice to finally see come to a close.

SAAB should have filed for bankruptcy almost a year earlier

July 8, 2016November 29, 2012 by Rune Moberg

Meanwhile, in the “Swedes working in an official capacity won’t lift a finger without trying to make it look like they are part of a bigger conspiracy, thus inflating their own self-worth”-department:

TTELA yesterday brought word that the receivers are about to file their report with the courts saying that SAAB should have filed for bankruptcy much earlier.

The report consists of about 50 pages describing the reasons behind SAAB’s bankruptcy and the chronology of their demise.

“They refer to a report by the CPA company Grant Thornton and agrees with their conclusion that “the time of SAAB’s insolvency points back to the start of 2011 and at the latest the stop of production April 6th 2011″ which is a minimum of eight months prior to the bankruptcy.”

Muller has yet to read the report and won’t comment.

Having followed this debacle for some time now, I find it strange that the Swedes do not ask themselves “how come EIB, who had absolutely nothing to risk, were the ones that pulled the trigger on denying Antonov as an investor?”. That happened after April 6th, and EIB’s approval would have ensured continued production at a point where the company was about to start production of two new models (with an additional one in the pipeline for introduction next year).

Hopefully more details will be made available when the final document gets published tomorrow.

Swedish Television examines the controversies around Saab — part II

July 8, 2016October 31, 2012 by Rune Moberg

As Tim reported a few weeks ago, Swedish television have explored part of the story of what went on in 2011 concerning Saab. The program can be viewed on svtplay.se and parts of it is in English.

I won’t go into details, but some quick notes to follow:

Most of what was revealed has been reported here on SU before, but tied neatly together to present a more fleshed out picture of the situation.

Victor gave the reporters full access to his e-mail archive and there was a significant change in the way SweGov communicated with VM after Saab asked for approval of Antonov. Prior to the crisis, Victor was invited to the 50th birthday of a SweGov official (Hans Lindblad), and afterwards all he got was “your official contact with swegov is nn”.

Hans Lindblad figured in the talks between Geely and Guy Lofalk

Final bid on Saab before the end of March

March 15, 2012March 15, 2012 by Red J

According to P4-West and ttela.se the receivers have sent a letter to the different companies that have expressed interest for Saab. In that letter the receivers have stated that a final bid has to be made before the end of March, and the deal should be completed before April 30.

On a personal note, I think we will see a final candidate in April but the final signature could need one or two weeks longer.