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‘Saab purchase delayed’: Spyker CEO

The purchase of Swedish car maker Saab by Spyker, scheduled to be completed on Tuesday, could be delayed by another day, the Dutch firm's CEO Victor Muller said on Tuesday.

'Saab purchase delayed': Spyker CEO

“There are a lot of pieces that have to fall into place at the same time,” Muller told news agency TT.

“Everything is moving forward and hopefully we will be finished today, but it could also carry over until tomorrow,” the Spyker chief said.

Tuesday signals exactly a month since Spyker announced that it had reached an agreement with US General Motors to buy Saab. Since then the final purchase agreement has been drafted, with the European Investment Bank (EIB) loan and Swedish state guarantees being decisive for the deal’s completion.

Since the approval of the loan came through on February 12th, Spyker and GM have been working on the details of the transfer.

Saab has been brought out of administration and existing agreements with retailers and suppliers have been dusted off and moved to the new firm. The firms also had to agree on future arrangements with regard to cooperation in areas such as engine development.

Victor Muller has been in Stockholm since last Thursday. Scott Mackie and Enrico Digirolamo are representing GM in the negotiations which are taking place at the Hammarskiöld & Co. law firm.

“We’re now down to lots of technical details, very boring,” Victor Muller confirmed.

Over the past week focus has largely been brought to bear on Spyker’s financing alternatives. $50 million of the $74 million purchase price is reported to have been secured by loans taken on by Spyker.

The Russian banker Vladimir Antonov, who was forced out as a majority shareholder of Spyker as a condition of the deal, claims that half has come from his banks. He has also claimed that he is prepared to stump up $100 million to ensure completion of the deal.

Credit assessment firm Dun & Bradstreet has stated, according to reports in Dagens Industri on Tuesday, that Spyker has a poor record of paying its creditors, with only 15 percent of its bills paid by due date. Furthermore Spyker has three payment defaults registered with a collection agency.

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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.