Europe’s association of automotive suppliers (CLEPA) is calling on Saab to voluntarily declare itself bankrupt to allow employees the chance to secure state aid.
Saab yesterday (23 June) announced it was no longer able to pay its staff following severe difficulties in meeting supplier debts that has resulted in the shutting down of its Trollhattan plant.
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And with Saab’s main union IF Metall also cautioning any failure of Saab could lead to up to 10,000 jobs being put at risk both in the manufacturing and supply side, CLEPA’s intervention is another blow to the beleaguered company.
“I think there is only thing left for Saab to do and that is to declare bankruptcy so employees can get the state guarantees [of] salaries for six months,” CLEPA CEO Lars Holmqvist told just-auto. “In a way I hope Saab will do it themselves – it is the only decent thing to do – they have run out of money completely.
“Somebody will declare them bankrupt – there are thousands of people who can do it – if you are a supplier or government or an employee and not being paid.”
Holmqvist painted a pessimistic picture as to whether or not CLEPA suppliers would receive their money back, cash he estimated to be between EUR50m (US$71m) and EUR100m. “It is too late, I am sorry to say that,” he said.
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By GlobalDataSaab CEO Victor Muller is thought to be in the US looking to secure new financing channels but Holmqvist branded the visit as “getting pathetic” while also taking aim at the Swedish government for what he perceived as a slow reaction to the automaker’s difficulties two years ago.
“What they [government] could have done in 2009, [is] come out with a package like the German and French governments, which I talked to them about, but no,” he said.
The European supplier body chief highlighted however, Saab’s small production level as one of its basic problems, manufacturing just 30,000 models a year.
“It is a factor of four or five before they have the slightest chance to survive,” he said. “We are talking about EUR1bn to save Saab.”
Reiterating his call for Saab to declare itself bankrupt, Holmqvist added if such a step was taken, Swedish law would allow payments of EUR20,000 to help employees bridge the gap between redundancy and finding a new post.
Potential Chinese investor Pang Da has apparently made some optimistic comments today (24 June) about Saab but CLEPA’s Holmqvist also poured cold water on this suggestion.
“You might have a company in China which is interested, but then it goes past the Chinese government and they will say no,” he said.
“There is nobody, no white knight who is arriving.”
