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Saab debts mount as cash search continues

The problems continue to mount at Swedish carmaker Saab with mounting debts, falling sales and an ongoing search for finance still without result.

Saab debts mount as cash search continues

“Victor Muller is still in China and conducting discussions together with several others from Saab,” said Gunilla Gustavs at Saab’s information office.

The firm was unwilling on Monday to confirm who the discussions were with.

According to a source quoted by broadcaster TV4, Saab is close to securing an agreement with a Chinese firm with a further two other Chinese companies said to be interested.

“As soon as we have something to announce we’ll do so,” Gustavs said.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has confirmed that it will not make a decision or add any further information regarding its loan conditions and negotiations on Monday.

“There is nothing to add today,” Pär Isaksson, spokesman for EIB in the Nordic countries said.

The EIB is due to decide on where it stands on the issue of the ownership of Saab and in particular on whether Russian financier Vladimir Antonov can be allowed to take a stake.

Meanwhile, figures from automotive trade association Bil Sweden indicate that sales of Saab cars have fallen sharply over the past month.

A mere 560 cars were registered during the month of April. While this is 6 percent more than the lows of last April, it was down from 888 cars in March.

The Swedish Enforcement Administration (Kronofogden) has over the past three weeks received default reports from seven companies regarding unpaid bills at Saab, according to a Sveriges Radio report.

The bills in question total some 2.5 million kronor ($415,240), but total debts are much larger and continue to grow as interest payments continue to accumulate.

Several of the companies who reported the firm to the Administration continue to conduct business with Saab, but it is unclear for how much longer.

Furthermore Saab has a standing debt with the Enforcement Administration in respect of state wage guarantees hanging over from its 2009 reorganisation. Saab and the Swedish state remain in dispute over the debt, which amounts to 120 million kronor.

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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.