Sapa-AFP Stockholm
Saab Automobile had filed for bankruptcy yesterday, a Swedish district court said, bringing to an end two years of efforts to rescue the iconic brand that manufactured cars for six decades.
The final desperate efforts to organise help in China were obstructed by Saab’s former owner, General Motors (GM), over licences.
“They were here this morning and submitted the documents requesting bankruptcy,” a clerk at the Vaenersborg district court said, adding that the court was currently examining the request.
Saab’s owner, Swedish Automobile, said that “the company without further funding will be insolvent and filing (for) bankruptcy is in the best interests of its creditors”.
“It is expected that the court will approve the filing and appoint receivers for Saab Automobile very shortly.”
Swedish Automobile’s charismatic chief executive, Victor Muller, had been due to appear before the court yesterday as judges had been scheduled to decide whether to lift or prolong the three-month bankruptcy protection Saab had been placed under while it was attempting to negotiate a deal to rescue the company.
Muller had been struggling to clinch an agreement in recent months with two Chinese groups, car maker Youngman and car distribution company Pang Da.
But GM has repeatedly said it would refuse to agree to the necessary technology licence transfers to the Chinese firms, and Pang Da pulled out of the negotiations a few weeks ago.
As recently as this weekend, GM reiterated its opposition to any deal with a Chinese suitor, a statement seen as a death knell for Saab.
“Saab’s various new alternative proposals are not meaningfully different from what was originally proposed to GM and rejected,” GM spokesman James Cain said.
“Each proposal results either directly or indirectly in the transfer of control and/or ownership of the company in a manner that would be detrimental to GM and its shareholders. As such, GM cannot support any of these proposed alternatives.”
Swedish Automobile said Youngman had pulled out of the talks after Cain’s remarks.
The attempts to sell Saab to Chinese partners have been seen as the last chance of saving the car maker, which was already on the brink of bankruptcy when GM sold it to Swedish Automobile, at the time called Spyker, in early 2010 for $400 million (R3.3 billion).
It has been a rocky road since then. The car maker was forced to halt production in April.
Saab’s 3 700 employees, whose salaries have been delayed for five consecutive months, did not receive their November paychecks.