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SAAB

Swedish government rejects Saab plan

The Swedish government has rejected US carmaker General Motors' reconstruction plan for its Saab subsidiary as "unsustainable".

Published: 21 February 2009 09:04 CET
Swedish government rejects Saab plan

An upbeat Saab CEO Jan Åke Jonsson presented a reconstruction plan designed to save the beleaguered Swedish car firm in Trollhättan on Friday afternoon, hours after a Swedish court had granted the firm protection from creditors.

“We hope that the 27 billion kronor ($3 billion) rescue package that the parliament has approved will be of use to the automotive industry and together with GM’s contribution we have the possibility of getting through this,” Jonsson said to news agency TT.

But Swedish Industry Minister Maud Olofsson argued that the reconstruction plan presented by GM is “unsustainable” and thereby ruled out the prospect of Saab taking advantage of the rescue package of loan guarantees.

“A sustainable business plan is required which offers the prospect of profit with a reasonable time frame,” Olofsson said on Friday afternoon.

Saab, which reported a loss of three billion kronor ($249 million) for 2008, received the green light for a reconstruction from Vänersborg district court on Friday.

According to the plan Saab would become independent, increase volumes and concentrate production to Trollhättan.

The reconstruction is aimed at saving the troubled firm from bankruptcy and creditors will be required to cut their demands. Staff cuts have not been ruled out.

Saab employs about 4,100 people in Sweden, 3,700 of whom work in Trollhättan. Reports indicate that a further 15,000 jobs at the firm’s suppliers could also be at risk.

A broad chorus of opinion in the Swedish media on Saturday considerered the reconstruction to be simply an ordered bankruptcy with little prospect of the new capital required to save the firm.

“The company can’t pay its debts. Saab is bankrupt, slut, finito, finished and kaput,” Svenska Dagbladet analyst Nils-Olof Ollevik wrote on Saturday.

The loss of Saab would be a significant blow to the pride of the Sweden but a distinct air of inevitability surrounds the firm’s future and recent polls indicate broad support for the government’s position.

BANKRUPTCY

Half of Swiss hotels, restaurants risk bankruptcy: employer group

Nearly half of Switzerland's restaurants and hotels risk bankruptcy within months failing financial support to weather devastating Covid-19 measures, the sector's employer group warned Sunday.

Published: 11 January 2021 08:00 CET
Half of Swiss hotels, restaurants risk bankruptcy: employer group
Closed restaurants face bankruptcy in Switzerland. Photo by AFP

The Swiss government is expected this week to extend the closure of bars, restaurants and leisure facilities across the country until the end of February to control stubbornly high coronavirus case and death numbers.

But industry federation GastroSuisse warned in a statement that if done  without providing significant financial support, around half of businesses in the restauration and hospitality sector could go belly-up by the end of March.

The group polled around 4,000 restaurant and hotel owners, and determined that 98 percent of them already are in urgent need of financial support.

“The very existence of many of them is threatened,” GastroSuisse president Casimir Platzer said in the statement.

While restaurants and other businesses quickly received financial support when Switzerland went into partial lockdown during the initial wave of infections, GastroSuisse has complained that support during subsequent sporadic closures has lagged.

Before the crisis, more than 80 percent of Swiss restaurants and hotels were in a good or very good position of liquidity, the study showed.

But that situation quickly deteriorated.

In October, as a second wave of infections picked up steam, the organisation cautioned that 100,000 jobs were at risk.

And during the final two months of 2020, nearly 60 percent of restaurant and hotel establishments were forced to conduct layoffs for a second time, it said.

Without government intervention, a third wave of layoffs is looming, Platzer warned.

The latest closures were to be lifted on January 22, but the government said last week it wanted to extend the deadline for a further five weeks.

GastroSuisse said the final announcement, due Wednesday, needed to be
accompanied by “immediate and uncomplicated” financial support to the sector
to avoid “disaster”.

USAM, a union that represents small and medium-sized businesses in Switzerland, called Sunday for the government not to prolong or tighten measures, warning it was an “existential question” for many of its members.

Switzerland, a country of 8.6 million people, is currently registering around 4,000 Covid-19 cases a day and had by Friday seen nearly 476,000 cases and 7,545 deaths since the start of the pandemic. 

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