The Swedish government offered Saab conditional backing for a deal to free up cash for the company (see previous story here), whose production lines have been stopped for two weeks as Saab didn't pay suppliers. "We have decided to allow the Debt Office to conclude an agreement with Saab," said enterprise minister Maud Olofsson during a news conference on Friday.
The government has approved a proposal from the Debt Office to allow Saab to sell real estate, including the production plant, to Russian financier Vladimir Antonov and then lease it back from him. The minister said this deal would bring €30 million to Saab in the first phase, although the real estate was worth much more than that.
Russian bank-owner Vladimir Antonov was one of Spyker's major shareholders before the Dutch-based company bought Saab from General Motors. Antonov was forced to sell his share before GM approved the sale, but now it seems Antonov is back in the game. The Swedish government agreed to the deal as the real estate was held as collateral for a 400 million euro loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to Saab, which the Debt Office guaranteed.
Olofsson said that the agreement means that the size of the EIB loan would now fall to 280 million euros. "This means in practice that the exposure of taxpayers falls as the size of the loan falls," Olofsson told reporters on Friday. However, the Swedish government had set conditions to the deal. These were that Saab had to get a market price for the property and to have access to production facilities. In addition, the payment had to take place through a European bank without links to Antonov and questions surrounding the buyer had to be cleared up.
What this all means is that from now on, Antonov will have a say in Saab’s future. Pending government approval, he may also buy a stake in the company.
By Dan Mihalascu
Source: Reuters
