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Koenigsegg silent over ownership rumours

Koenigsegg Group, the consortium bidding to buy Saab Automobile, is remaining tight lipped about its ownership structure despite pressure from the Swedish government to display greater transparency.

Koenigsegg silent over ownership rumours

Jöran Hägglund, state secretary at Sweden’s industry ministry, met with Koenigsegg Group this week to discuss the proposed deal.

“We have received a report and have encouraged them, to the extent possible, to be as open and accessible as possible in replying to this type of question,” Hägglund told news agency TT.

Rumours have abounded since late last week that one of the owners of the Koenigsegg Group has sold his shares. American board member Mark Bishop, who owns 22 percent of the company, is rumoured to have offloaded the shares just as Koenigsegg enters into late stage negotiations over the proposed purchase of Saab Automobile.

But Koenigsegg Group is so far refusing to discuss developments within the firm.

“I am unable to comment on that,” said Halldora von Konigsegg, CEO of the Koenigsegg Group consortium and wife of Koenigsegg Automotive’s CEO and founder Christian von Koenigsegg.

Jöran Hägglund, the government’s chief negotiator in the Saab deal, has been criticised by trade union leaders for causing unnecessary concern by speaking openly about his understanding that changes were afoot within the Koenigsegg Group. But Hägglund has defended his statement.

“The tax payers are the ones guaranteeing the loan and there is a major public interest regarding the people and groups involved,” he said.

Halldora von Koenigsegg said the Koenigsegg Group was reaching the closing stages of its negotiations with the Swedish government.

“Our ambition is for it to be ready as soon has possible, so we hope to have reached a conclusion within the next few weeks. But there are a lot of things under negotiation that will have to fall into place,” she said.

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CARS

Former Swedish Saab bosses appear in court

Swedish car maker Saab's former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson and the firm's former head lawyer Kristina Geers have appeared in court in Vänersborg in west Sweden, accused of falsifying financial documents shortly before the company went bankrupt in 2011.

Former Swedish Saab bosses appear in court
Saab's former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson. Photo: Karin Olander/TT
The pair are accused of falsifying the paperwork at the height of the Swedish company's financial difficulties at the start of the decade.
 
A third person – who has not been named in the Swedish media – is accused of assisting them by issuing false invoices adding up to a total of 30 million kronor ($3.55m).
 
According to court documents, the charges relate to the firm's business in Ukraine and the paperwork in question was signed just before former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson resigned.
 
Both Jonsson and Saab's former head lawyer Kristina Geers have admitted signing the papers but denied knowledge of the Ukranian firm implicated in the case.
 
All three suspects deny all the charges against them.
 

Saab's former head lawyer Kristina Geers. Photo:  Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT
 
Saab filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2011, after teetering on the edge of collapse for nearly two years.
 
Chief prosecutor Olof Sahlgren told the court in Vänersborg on Wednesday that the alleged crimes took place in March 2011, when Saab was briefly owned by the Dutch company Spyker Cars.
  
It was eventually bought by National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs), a Chinese-owned company after hundreds of staff lost their jobs.
 
The car maker, which is based in west Sweden, has struggled to resolve serious financial difficulties by attracting new investors since the takeover.
 
In October 2014 it announced it had axed 155 workers, close to a third of its workforce.
 
Since 2000, Saab automobile has had no connection with the defence and aeronautics firm with the same name. It only produces one model today, the electric 9-3 Aero Sedan, mainly targeting the Chinese market.