Saab has come out fighting against reports earlier that administrators could pull the plug on its embattled operations as early as today (11 October).
Despite its tough talking however, the Swedish automaker concedes a bridge loan of EUR70m from Chinese manufacturer Youngman has not yet materialised although it insists the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is not blocking any move.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“We are still working on organising finance from Youngman – we are working full-steam ahead with the NDRC,” a Saab spokeswoman in Sweden told just-auto. “It is all speculation…just pure speculation. It is unnamed sources and rumours. We are quite puzzled where they come from.
“Yes, we do need to get additional funding into the company – that is what the EUR70m (US$95m) loan from Youngman [is for] – whose primary purpose is to finance us through this reorganisation period. That money has not come in yet but we expect [it] will come in. It is true we do need this financing in order to be able to successfully complete this [re] organisation.”
Saab maintained it was “still here, absolutely” and that the NDRC process in evaluating potential Chinese investment, was proceeding normally.
However, the automaker did say it had a different understanding of when cash would be forthcoming and with a deadline looming of when Sweden’s State guarantee for Saab workers’ wages runs out, time is of the essence.
“We had a different estimate on the time it would take to get that money in,” the Saab spokeswoman said. “We had expected it within two weeks of the agreement itself.
“We are doing everything possible as we always are to ensure we are here long term.”
Sweden’s State guarantee for wages runs out on 21 October.
