SHARE
COPY LINK

SAAB

Dutch shareholders doubt Saab-Spyker deal

The director of the Dutch Shareholder's Association VEB has thrown a spanner in the works of the Saab-Spyker deal by publicly demanding answers from Spyker CEO Victor Muller on his financing plans.

Dutch shareholders doubt Saab-Spyker deal
Spyker CEO Victor Muller

In an open letter, Jan Maarten Slagter has fired a highly-charged list of questions at Victor Muller, whose company is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange.

Slagter is requesting more details as to Spyker’s financing of Saab Automobile from General Motors, which was announced earlier this week.

He hopes his queries will be addressed at the next shareholder’s meeting, scheduled for February 12th.

“It’s an extremely complicated deal, so shareholders should be informed in more detail about the chances of success,” Slagter told financial news website E24.

A central question for VEB is Spyker’s strategy to reverse the fortunes of Saab and turn an old, ailing business into a profitable new venture.

“That is, of course, what is most important,” Slagter added. “The new management of Spyker have no experience whatsoever of large-scale car manufacturing.”

Slagter casts a pessimistic shadow over the deal and believes the new company’s chances of success are ‘minimal’.

“I wish him good luck but all those who are thinking of investing in the company must be aware that they are taking a big risk.”

Shares in Spyker rocketed when rumours emerged of the take-over talks with GM.

At the end of last year shares hovered around the €1.90 ($2.65) mark. On Friday, at the time of writing, they were trading for €3.85. ($5.37)

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.