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GENERAL MOTORS

Luxembourg bidder in late burst to buy Saab

Luxembourg-based investment firm Genii Capital has joined the race to buy Saab Automobile from US owner General Motors, according to Swedish media reports.

Published: 7 January 2010 14:16 CET

An unidentified Swedish businessman close to the bid told newspaper Dagens Arbete that Genii Capital possessed considerable financial muscle and strong partners. Asked why the firm had taken so long to present its plans, the source said:

“I have been working on this deal for more than a year and it takes time for all the pieces to fall into place.”

Genii Capital has met with Swedish government representatives to inform them of its plans, reports Dagens Arbete, a newspaper operated by the powerful metalworkers union Metall.

Genii Capital is a private investment firm active on the North American, European and Asian markets. The company specializes in investment in innovations within the fields of brand management, technology, entertainment and the auto industry.

As recently as mid-December, the firm announced it was purchasing a stake in the Renault Formula 1 team.

A receptionist for the company told The Local that there was nobody currently available for comment.

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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.

Published: 2 September 2015 14:46 CEST
Updated: 2 September 2015 16:26 CEST
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.