Muller Gives Up, Files For Saab Bankruptcy

by Bertel Schmitt

December 19th, 2011 4:38 AM

Sweden’s Aftonbladet reports that Victor Muller filed for bankruptcy of Saab this morning at the court in Vänersborg.

Dagens Industri writes that with Saab having declared bankruptcy itself, the matter will be resolved quickly. A bankruptcy order is expected during the day.

The actual verdict had been handed down by GM over the weekend. GM refused to agree to any of the deals presented.

Today, the court in Vänersborg was scheduled to decide whether to lift creditors protection, which would have opened the doors to much messier bankruptcy proceedings. Over the weekend, Muller was in closed session with Rachel Pang of Youngman to hammer out yat another last minute deal. At one point, Rachel Pang became gravely ill, and unable to attend the court proceedings. After a little while and more talk, she regained her health. Now, any court appearances are no longer necessary.

Youngman had no other choice than to realize that without the cooperation of GM, the matter was way beyond salvage. This morning, Victor Muller reached into his hat, found it devoid of bunny-rabbits, and did what he should have done much earlier.

Both dealer group Pang Da and Youngman have sunk considerable amounts of money into keeping zombie Saab at least clinically alive. Wasting your own money is seen as a grave sin in China, and the disastrous end of the Saab adventure most likely will negatively influence foreign asset purchases by Chinese entities for a while.

Muller, his out-on-bail friend Antonov, and any Chinese suitors should have realized much earlier that GM had no interest in Saab’s survival if it would be at the expense of GM’s sizable activities in China. GM agreed to sell Saab to Muller because that spared GM the messy and expensive business to shut down Saab themselves.

As expected, Saabinistas vent their anger on GM’s Facebook page. Many vow to never buy a GM product. A hollow threat: Most of them are used-car drivers anyway. Case in point: Saab’s über-flagwaver Steven Wade. Before he sold Saabsunited to take on a (shortlived) PR job at Saab, he drove a 1999 Saab 9-3, canary-yellow. Wade is already bac k in Australia, looking for a job.

#Bankruptcy #BertelSchmitt #Müller #Saab #Sweden

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2 of 83 comments

Romanjetfighter on Dec 19, 2011

Are they still going to make the 9 4x CUV?

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Jeff_vader on Dec 20, 2011

Well in news that ranks right up there with "Rain falls in winter, shock! horror! probe!" sweet little Rachal Pang has announced that Youngman would like to buy what remains of Saab from the administrator tonight. Well no dung Sherlock as most commentators accept that this was probably been their game plan along. But I would have thought that she might be able to earn a fortune selling her body to medical science because for girl who was critically ill earlier in the week she seems to be making a huge contribution to her companies plans to feast on the bones. As ever, the true disciples over at The Church Of The One True Saab continue to believe in the sainted Mr Muller and his statement yesterday that five other parties are interested in buying the remains of the company. (Quick question, Victor? Why weren't you talking to them instead of the Chinese if they were that keen?) But I have to say I am impressed with the number of believers who are scrawling their anger over the GM FB page and the article over at the Church about how this will sadly affect the people of Trollhatten especially during the holiday season. The passion for such a 'normal' brand is remarkable to see. Unfortuntley I think it is probably miss placed. I would have thought that SAAB AB will now be asking for the brandname back thank you very much and any new buyer for what has been Saab will end up with a production line and a few cars but there will be no actual 'Saab' brand anymore. All of it will be then packed up to China to become the Youngman Excelsior or something similar. As we all suspected in the UK, just like Rover. The question is now will Muller turn out to have employed the same 'interesting' accounts procedures as Mr Towers? & speaking of the UK, Renault have announced that they are axing 70% of their UK range; no more Espace, Kangoo, Modus or Laguna. They will only be selling Megane, Clio and Twingo. Renault have realised the basic truth about the car industry not only in the UK or Europe but worldwide and it is the basic truth that has killed Saab. There are too many cars chasing too few customers. There will be more brands to follow into that dark night with Saab, although most of them will not be ruined by an egotist like Muller. Now big manufacturing groups can see that its not the end of the world for them if a brand goes, who's next? If I worked for Seat or Vauxhall/Opel I would be a very worried man this morning...

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