Great Job, Victor Muller: Saab Produced $2 Billion In Unpaid Bills
Before and after Saab had gone bankrupt, pipe-dreamers thought that the company can be revived with just a few million dollars. The number commonly used was $50 to $70 million. We maintained that it would cost a few billion dollars to get the company going again.
As it turns out, we were way too optimistic.
Saab’s unpaid bills are between SEK12-13 billion (USD1.8-2 billion) says the Wall-Street Journal. The number is based on information from the court-appointed receivers. A full accounting will be published on April 10.
The books must have been in a royal mess if it had taken until now to establish total debt with a ten percent variance.
It is no surprise that no buyer was found for Saab as a whole. The buyer would have shouldered the $2 billion in debt and would have needed another 2 billion at least to have a chance at viability.
Also on April 10 is the final deadline for bids for Saab assets. According to the Journal, “a handful of parties are interested in buying Saab Automobile’s facilities in Trollhättan, Sweden. All of them are interested in producing cars at the plant.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I'm sure that Mr. Muller paid himself first and IN FULL :)
Um, yes? Of course they had unpaid bills. They went bankrupt. That's what bankruptcy is!
SAAB could not survive no matter what. First it never was a luxury brand to justify premium price. SAAB with its limited appeal and volumes could survive only if it was making rebadged Opel. But SAAB engineers kept ignoring this fact and trying to re-engineer what ever GM was offering them. There is nothing wrong about it but at volumes it sold and labor cost there was simply no way to make any profit these way. SAAB was insolvent for decades.
3 former Saab board members arrested for tax evasion. All over the news in Sweden. What a surprise...