There is surely one very relieved Dutchman in Sweden today (28 October).
Yet again, Saab CEO Victor Muller has engineered something of a triumph – for the time being at least – as the automaker has seemingly escaped the clutches of bankruptcy.
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But as ever with Saab, there are more questions than answers.
Today’s ink had barely dried on the MoU between Saab and proposed Chinese owners Youngman and Pang Da, than myriad possibilities emerged.
Saab has previously hinted at job losses or “headcount reductions” as it prefered to call them and indeed, today again, Muller appeared to raise that potential in the Swedish media.
But I spoke to Youngman Saab project director Rachel Pang, who after what seem like marathon talks in Stockholm with the manufacturer and fellow-Chinese company Pang Da this week, she assured me there would be no job losses.
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By GlobalDataBut can that be the case when Saab has barely turned a wheel at its Trollhättan factory since April – can it really continue producing around 30,000 cars with a workforce of nearly 4,000?
The other major question to address – and the spark that really kicked this whole extraordinary saga off in the first place – is what happens to the – not inconsiderable – EUR150m (US$212m) owed to suppliers.
“If they want to run production, they had better give us our money otherwise there will not [be any] production,” European automotive supplier association (CLEPA) CEO Lars Holmqvist told me this afternoon.
“It looks like they [Saab] have secured financing and have got all the necessary attributes to be able to continue production at Saab.”We are very happy to assist with that as long as they pay their debts to us.”
Of all the players in this interminable story, it is perhaps the suppliers and the employees who have shown the most remarkable stamina, not to say impressive patience.
CLEPA realised very early on that Saab going bankrupt would result in probably not a cent finding its way into supplier coffers, while employees stoically held out through some remarkably patient union restraint.
At every twist and turn, the plug could have been pulled and indeed, the Swedish automaker was potentially hours away today (28 October) from being thrown to the vagaries of the market with its bankruptcy protection lifted, as requested by its administrator.
Saab is by no means out of the woods yet. Approval has to be granted by the Swedish and Chinese governments, the National Development and Reform Commission is still involved from Beijing, while no statement has yet been issued from the European Investment Bank, whose vociferous opposition to Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov formed such a feature of the tale.
And of course, the man at the centre of the storm itself, Muller, has not yet revealed whether or not he will be around to keep his hand on the tiller. The CLEPA boss certainly doesn’t think he would be interested in running a company for someone else and maybe Muller thrives on leading from the front.
Will the Chinese keep production in Sweden? Youngman has mentioned Saab’s technology skills several times to me and maybe its intention – with Pang Da – is to eventually transfer the whole kit over to China.
But that would likely not be for several years yet. It’s not as if Volvo has upped sticks with Geely to China and Saab desperately needs a calm, boring even, period where it simply gets on with the business of making cars.
Muller, Youngman, Pang Da, CLEPA, FKG, IF Metall, Unionen, Sveriges Ingenjorer, NDRC, EIB, Antonov, SNDO, Swedish Enterprise Ministry, Spyker, SWAN, Hawtai, Vanersborg District Court, are just some of the players that have been in this drama and there may be many more yet to come as the new owners hopefully take control.
Saab has so far managed to surprise at every turn. It still needs to move calmly out of reconstruction and on to a normal business footing, but with this Swedish business, nothing is for certain.
