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SAAB BANKRUPT

SAAB

Saab’s US unit hopes to avoid bankruptcy

The North American unit of bankrupt Swedish automaker Saab will try to avoid going into bankruptcy itself to keep up warranties for recent car buyers and support dealers left with inventory, a company official said Wednesday.

Tim Colbeck, president of Saab Cars North America, based outside of Detroit, said in a telephone interview that the unit has hired consultants to avoid creditors forcing them into filing for bankruptcy protection while they sort out what can be done with remaining assets.

“We hope to avoid filing for bankruptcy,” he said.

The consultants, McTevia & Associates, will sort out and organize the claims SCNA is facing and figure out an equitable way to deal with them, Colbeck said.

He declined to say what kind of assets there were, but he said SCNA hoped to reinstate the warranties of car owners who bought Saabs before 2010 while it was still controlled by General Motors.

Colbeck said SCNA has been overwhelmed with calls and messages from Saab owners who are in despair over the company’s shutdown.

“There is a lot of emotion,” he said.

Saab Automobile filed for bankruptcy on Monday, bringing to an end two years of efforts to rescue the iconic brand which has been the hallmark of Swedish cars for six decades.

In Sweden, insurance company If, in cooperation with Swedish Saab dealerships, has said it will cover the costs associated with the company’s vehicle damage warranty through 2012 for the roughly 2,000 vehicles sold in Sweden during the last year.

Meanwhile, GM has confirmed it has set aside $100 million in special reserve to deal with claims that could arise from the collapse of Saab.

The reserve will be used mainly to settle the claims of suppliers who might have made parts for the 2012 Saab 94-X, which GM had planned to build for the company in Mexico.

Saab’s bankruptcy filing in Sweden, devalued the franchises of Saab dealers in the United States and Canada and left thousands of owners without warranty coverage if they bought a new Saab after March, 2010, after its sale to Spyker Cars, now known as Swedish Automobile (Swan), of the Netherlands was finalized.

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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.

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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