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GM to press ahead with Saab shutdown: report

Saab will be still shut down, announced US auto giant General Motors as it said it would not consider 's renewed bid for its Swedish business.

GM to press ahead with Saab shutdown: report

Svenska Dagbladet (SVD) newspaper reported on Wednesday that GM would not enter into further negotiations with Dutch sportscar maker Spyker.

“Saab’s board had a short meeting yesterday. GM representatives were on the phone from the US. And the discussions were entirely about the shutting down Saab – not about the new bid,” the newspaper wrote.

GM announced last week it would wind down its loss-making Swedish unit Saab after breaking off sales talks with Spyker.

But the Dutch company then made a last-ditch bid for the iconic brand, which it extended indefinitely hours before it was due to expire Monday.

“The word (at the meeting) was to shut down Saab and that is what we have started working on,” Håkan Danielsson of Sweden’s engineering union told SVD.

Danielsson was at the meeting and told the newspaper he estimated the wind down of Saab could take many years.

Spyker’s new bid was received with scepticism in Sweden, and the government went ahead with preparing for a Saab closure despite the news of Spyker’s second attempt to take over the auto brand.

On Monday, Enterprise Minister Maud Olofsson vowed to help Saab’s employees and home region, announcing public funding of 542 million kronor ($75 million) to create jobs and growth.

Matts Carlsson, one of Sweden’s most respected auto industry analysts, meanwhile told Swedish radio that GM was probably not interested in selling Saab at all, suggesting the US carmaker would rather shut down Saab because of fears over future competition.

But Danielsson told SVD: “GM wants to sell Saab…. It is of course better to have money come in than pay the costs associated with shutting down.”

“But it is dragging on and it is going to take more time before everything is ready” for the deal to be completed,” he said.

Spyker chief executive Victor Muller told SVD Tuesday he was “working under a very difficult timeline” to reach a deal with GM.

The troubled US carmaker set a December 31st deadline for a potential sale or closure of its Swedish operations.

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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.