Bits and pieces before the storm

This post will be more like a notepad or timestamp for future reference than a news article. It's mainly quiet, although it's clear that behind the curtain of Saab administrators heavy activity is going on.

The deadline for bids for Saab is over. The bids are there and of course not a single name was unveiled  on the regular press-conference. Through the media are only two names flying : Mahindra & Mahindra and Lotus - Youngman. However all of the bidders (5-7 ?) reportedly submitted the bids and all of them are interested in the "whole Saab package", incl. the successful Saab Parts.

This is what the administrators are solving now.

 Some numbers appeared in the media in the last days. The Youngman bid should be 3.2 billion SEK (362 M€). Seeing the number in context of Saabs debt 12 - 13 billion SEK (1.5 B€, source), the bid is much lower. But also part of the debt should be in convertible shares and also not everything will be payed out. Youngman also stated to invest 10 billion SEK (1.2B€) for the production restart as well as anothe 10 billion for the next gen (?) Saab (source). But since in the past Youngman reportedly sent funding always late and less than promised, please take this with reserve.

Saab Parts AB also started to produce body parts. After negotiations with the administrators they rented the the press- and body factory in Trollhattan with required machines. Also they've bought a large amount of already produced body parts. Swedish original of the press release is here [pdf], the english translation here.

The former bankruptcy administrator Guy Lofalk as well as Victor Muller were in the court to bring more light in their operations prior to Saab bankruptcy. Since they don't like each other at all, this was a tough fight.

There are positive indications for usage of the Saab brand for the future, coming from the administrators. Besides of the importance of the fact that possible future cars from Trollhattan could be sold under the Saab brand, it is also a very important indication, that there is a serious interest from the bidders to continue the Saab production in some way. Otherwise they wouldn't loose time on this complicated topic.

54 BMW engines are missing. In the time of agreement between Saab and BMW about using their engines in the future generations of Saab, BMW has sent 54 engines to Sweden. Now they seem to be missing and the german automaker is afraid of dissapearing them to someone who could reverse engineer / copy them. Hm.

That's it. It's still nothing against the time when we know who will be the future owner of Saab and what are the intentions with the brand. This will be the most critical moment in many months and years.

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