Trollhattan’s mayor strongly believes either China’s Youngman or India’s Mahindra & Mahindra will rescue bankrupt local automaker Saab by the end of next month.
The mayor, Paul Akerlund, is also leader of the council in Trollhattan, where Saab is based, and formed his views after meeting Youngman, in particular, several times.
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Representatives of the Chinese firm arrived in Gothenburg this week and are widely believed to be holding talks with Saab’s receivers in this western Swedish city, in a bid to revive the process which has seen an army of 55 lawyers working on the automaker’s case since its bankruptcy last December.
Trollhattan – a town of around 50,000 people – is facing a potentially chronic fallout from Saab’s demise with nearly 4,000 direct jobs lost while some estimates put the total number of redundancies at at least 10,000 including the supply chain.
But Akerlund, who worked at Saab for 32 years, including 19 as chairman of the IF Metall union, is convinced the automaker could be the subject of a takeover bid.
“I still think we will see something at the end of April – I really think there is a chance to save the company,” he told just-auto in his Trollhattan office around one hour north of Gothenburg. “I have met Youngman a couple of times – I think they are serious.
“They have worked very, very hard for a long time to buy Saab. I have seen a lot of plans – they are realistic in their thinking.”
The mayor added weight to his belief a rescue package was in the offing by revealing that, when Youngman was previously in Sweden, they brought representatives from the Bank of China with them.
“I think they know what they are doing,” he added.
However, the council leader took aim at the receivers whose reticence to provide detailed information concerning Saab’s future has attracted much criticism in Sweden.
“The receivers said we don’t want to talk with anybody and don’t want to give any information,” said Akerlund. “That is a lot of wrong thinking from their side. It [Saab] was much, much bigger that they thought from the beginning – Saab Automobile is 25 companies in one.”
The mayor conceded the situation was extremely difficult for up to 10,000 people in the Trollhattan region who have either lost their jobs or are facing redundancy.
Earlier this week, Scandinavian supplier body FKG managing director Fredrik Sidahl told just-auto in Gothenburg many of his members had had to lay off staff already.
“You can say somewhere [around] 7,000-10,000 people I can talk about [are] unemployed at least,” said Akerlund. “It is tough. Take the people who worked at Saab – 57% live in Trollhattan and 27% in Vanersborg so in this area it will be very, very tough.”
