Saab says it is trying to hasten financial developments that could secure its immediate future as it announced today (23 June) it had suspended staff wage payments.
The automaker is remaining tight-lipped as to whether or not its decision to stop wages was a precursor to bankruptcy and insisted it was looking to quicken the pace of potential financial help.
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The beleaguered manufacturer has not been able to pay its almost 4,000 employees their June salaries as it attempts to broker a deal that will see hundreds of suppliers receive outstanding debts.
“Obviously I am close enough to the action…that we have not stopped initiatives to strengthen,” a Saab spokesman told just-auto from Sweden. “We wish it would go a little bit faster – there are an enormous amount of players in this.
“Of course we anticipated to pay salaries on time [but] because of a shortage in short-term liquidity, we are not able to that.”
Two of those players are Chinese distributor Pang Da and manufacturer Youngman, whose reaction to today’s (23 June) salary news is not yet known.
Earlier this week details of a letter outlining a proposal to pay suppliers an initial 10% of remaining debt with the balance made up in mid-September were made public – a development Saab regrets.
“Unfortunately, there were parts of this letter floating around, but it is not something we can discuss,” said the Saab spokesman. “I can’t comment on the 10% offer – that is between us and the suppliers.”
Saab is also believed to be involved in discussions with Swedish company Hemfosa for the sale and lease-back of its property – a financial arrangement from which Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov recently withdrew – but the manufacturer declined to confirm if this was the case. Calls to Hemfosa were not returned.
“We have good indications the negotiations on for example the sale and lease-back are on-going day and night,” added the Saab spokesman.
