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SAAB

Supplier applies for Saab subsidiary bankruptcy

A supplier to Saab subsidiary Saab Automobile Tools has applied for the firm to be declared banktupt, according to a Reuters report.

Published: 22 July 2011 11:02 CEST
Supplier applies for Saab subsidiary bankruptcy

An official at Vänersborg District Court in western Sweden has confirmed that an application was filed by SwePart Verktyg AB for Saab Automobile Tools AB to be declared bankrupt.

“There is a claim that is not regulated,” said Swepart Verktyg chairperson Lars Thunberg on the decision to apply to the court.

“Many of us are in the same boat. And what can you do when the other party does not get back to you?”

According to Thunberg, the claim is for a total of 5 million kronor ($800,000). He added that Saab had repeatedly assured the firm that the liability would be met, with the last promised deadline on June 2nd.

When the payment had not arrived on June 8th, Thunberg and Swepart Tools lost patience with the beleaguered car maker.

“It broke my trust,” Thunberg said.

“I do not want them to go out of business, that you have to understand, for it would be terrible. But for us, who are a small company, this constitutes a lot of money.”

Saab Tools and Saab Parts were formed in order to facilitate guarantees for loans from the European Investment Ban (EIB).

The subsidiaries have lent a total of at least 800 million kronor to Saab Automobile, according to the local Göteborgsåposten daily.

Saab Automobile is the sole owner of Saab Automobile Tools AB and the application is the first to be filed against a Saab firm.

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BANKRUPTCY

Half of Swiss hotels, restaurants risk bankruptcy: employer group

Nearly half of Switzerland's restaurants and hotels risk bankruptcy within months failing financial support to weather devastating Covid-19 measures, the sector's employer group warned Sunday.

Published: 11 January 2021 08:00 CET
Half of Swiss hotels, restaurants risk bankruptcy: employer group
Closed restaurants face bankruptcy in Switzerland. Photo by AFP

The Swiss government is expected this week to extend the closure of bars, restaurants and leisure facilities across the country until the end of February to control stubbornly high coronavirus case and death numbers.

But industry federation GastroSuisse warned in a statement that if done  without providing significant financial support, around half of businesses in the restauration and hospitality sector could go belly-up by the end of March.

The group polled around 4,000 restaurant and hotel owners, and determined that 98 percent of them already are in urgent need of financial support.

“The very existence of many of them is threatened,” GastroSuisse president Casimir Platzer said in the statement.

While restaurants and other businesses quickly received financial support when Switzerland went into partial lockdown during the initial wave of infections, GastroSuisse has complained that support during subsequent sporadic closures has lagged.

Before the crisis, more than 80 percent of Swiss restaurants and hotels were in a good or very good position of liquidity, the study showed.

But that situation quickly deteriorated.

In October, as a second wave of infections picked up steam, the organisation cautioned that 100,000 jobs were at risk.

And during the final two months of 2020, nearly 60 percent of restaurant and hotel establishments were forced to conduct layoffs for a second time, it said.

Without government intervention, a third wave of layoffs is looming, Platzer warned.

The latest closures were to be lifted on January 22, but the government said last week it wanted to extend the deadline for a further five weeks.

GastroSuisse said the final announcement, due Wednesday, needed to be
accompanied by “immediate and uncomplicated” financial support to the sector
to avoid “disaster”.

USAM, a union that represents small and medium-sized businesses in Switzerland, called Sunday for the government not to prolong or tighten measures, warning it was an “existential question” for many of its members.

Switzerland, a country of 8.6 million people, is currently registering around 4,000 Covid-19 cases a day and had by Friday seen nearly 476,000 cases and 7,545 deaths since the start of the pandemic. 

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