Trollhättan, Sweden: Swedish Automobile N.V. (Swan) announces it has been informed that the administrator of the reorganization, Mr. Guy Lofalk, will apply for termination of the voluntary reorganization of Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile) and two subsidiaries at the Swedish court in Vänersborg.
In spite of the funding commitment of North Street Capital LP which was published earlier today, the administrator who leads the reorganization, Mr. Guy Lofalk, will file an application at the Swedish court to terminate the reorganization process. Saab Automobile shall contest this application and request for continuation of the voluntary reorganization process.
Simultaneously, Saab Automobile shall apply at the court for replacement of Mr. Lofalk as administrator.
Trollhättan, Sweden: Swedish Automobile N.V. (Swan) announces it has received a commitment from North Street Capital, LP (North Street) on the funding of Swan and Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile).
The offer consists of the following transactions:
Subscription to 2,386,635 ordinary shares in the capital of Swan at a price of USD 4.19 per share for the purpose of funding the working capital of Swan, Saab Automobile and Saab Great Britain Ltd. The shares to be issued will be paid in full by Friday October 21, 2011.
Procurement of a loan to Saab Automobile in the amount of USD 60 million to be collateralized by a first lien on certain assets of Saab Automobile as well as a second lien on the collateral as pledged to NDO. This loan is subject to further documentation. The object of the parties is to finalize documentation no later than Monday October 24, 2011 with subsequent funding within two days thereof.
Swan intends to accept this offer because it has doubts that the bridge funding of Youngman and Pang Da, of which a partial payment has been received, shall be paid in full on 22 October 2011. Immediate availability of funding is necessary to continue the reorganization process of Saab Automobile.
Our design chief, Jason Castriota, has done some very cool things in the past. This very exclusive, one-off Lancia Stratos is one of them. Yes, this car was done by the same guy who’s leading the design team working on your future Saab 9-3 replacement.
Doesn’t that get you just a little bit excited?
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I know it might seem a little unusual to be talking about a Lancia here, but I guess you could say this is more a post about passion.
If there’s one thing I hear consistently from Saab fans around the world it’s that many of them feel the cars lost some of their individuality – things that people can get passionate about – in recent times.
Saab is a small company and we have to be passionate about what we do in order to keep on moving. We also need to build vehicles that you can get passionate about as a customer, in order to keep you interested in what we do.
If you know anything about our Chairman, you’ll know that he’s passionate about this company. I guess that’s why he wanted to get Jason Castriota involved as soon as the two met a few years ago.
This Lancia Stratos was a one-off project, but it met with universal praise and pleas for the Fiat group to seek mass production of the design. Such is the passion that evocative design can inspire in people.
We’re looking forward to the future to see what sort of magic Jason and the Saab design team have come up with for the Saab 9-3 replacement
Many of our staff get to drive new Saab vehicles as part of their daily routine. A lot of them are testing vehicle components, or they might have a car assigned to their area for use.
There’s a quite a lot, a majority in fact, who don’t. And seeing many of them have some down time at the moment, we thought it would be a good idea to give them an opportunity to drive most of our latest offerings. A staff drive event kicked off last week at Saab and is running for another few weeks, giving Saab employees the opportunity to check out models that they may not have had a chance to drive yet.
There are four vehicles in the fleet made available for this period.
Saab 9-5 TTiD
Saab 9-3 Griffin TTiD (low emissions 180hp)
Saab 9-3 Griffin Convertible
Saab 9-4x
I jumped in with a few guys from our Parts Analysis area today as they took the Saab 9-4x for a spin. The 9-4x is proving to be the most popular model in this test. As it’s not made here in Trollhattan and is only present in very limited numbers here, this presents a prime first opportunity for nearly everyone who gets into the car.
Mats, Johnny and Lars-Erik all took a turn driving the 9-4x and all gave it a resounding thumbs up at the end of the drive.
I sat in the back for the whole trip – a first for me – and was pretty impressed by that panoramic sunroof. Even with the glass section open, the wind is deflected in such a way that you can only feel the faintest feather of a breeze from the back seat.
I also discovered that you can control the radio station from the rear seat control panel – something parents might want to keep in mind if they have curious kiddies in the back (I’m not sure if there’s a way to disable this).
After riding with the guys in the 9-4x, I grabbed the keys for a solo drive in the low emissions Saab 9-3 Griffin TTiD. Once again I came away keenly impressed by the 9-3, which despite some age is carrying itself extremely well.
I was particularly interested in this low emissions model and how it would drive. Saab sell versions of this car with 130, 160 and 180hp and all of them attract tax reductions in appropriate markets. The 180hp version that drove is outstanding. The torque on this car is amazing and it pulls effortlessly from all speeds.
Like many of you, I’m not from a particularly diesel-friendly country so I’ve always owned pertol-driven cars. I’d own this in a heartbeat. It’s so easy to drive and the Griffin enhancements (leather/textile trim, rear spoiler (below), front fogs, etc) accent the vehicle beautifully. This is a great way to send out the 9-3, trust me.
The drive program goes for another few weeks.
I’m sure there are going to be a lot of first-time drives in that time, and a lot of smiling faces as Saab employees get to check out the company’s latest offerings.
If only we could get these into showrooms and on the road!
The summer events program for car enthusiasts in North America is coming to a close now that winter draws nearer.
Last weekend, Mitchell Saab in Connecticut held it’s 30th annual Swedish beauty contest along with it’s sister Volvo dealership.
Steve F, who runs the Saabfans weblog, attended the event and was kind enough to send along some photos for me to share on Inside Saab. My thanks to Steve for sending these in.
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Saab 9-4x in black (rear) – gorgeous!
Saab 9-4x in black – front
Saab 9-4x in silver – my first chance to sit inside a 9-4x and I wish I got to drive it – soon I hope!
The beginning of the Saab line up with our 99 Turbo foreground
I know we have some Saab fans in Canada as I’ve met a few of them in my travels. There’s a small but hardcore group out in the Pacific Northwest and I can well remember the large group from Toronto that got together for a support convoy there last year, even getting some significant news coverage at the time.
I don’t know much about the Saab presence in some of the less prominent provinces, however.
I got this email from Newfoundland over the weekend, and it showed me that there’s definitely some dedicated Saab support there. It’s always great to hear from people for the first time, and especially when they’re from places where you didn’t know there were pockets of support for Saab. The support that we get from you folks, even in these hardest of times, is outstanding, and much appreciated.
The writer is Robert B:
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Hi Steven,
I thought it was about time I took pen in hand and express what Saab has meant to me.
I too am from a land down under, the island of Newfoundland, off the east coast of Canada. I have driven my Saab since it rolled out of the box in 2003. It’s been through searing heat, arctic blasts and everything mother nature can dish out. And it still looks like new out there in the full moon tonight, and it still puts a smile on my face 8 years into my Saab life.
Over the past few years, I’ve watched the drama, the endings and near endings, and the new beginnings. At the end of the day, I want everyone there to know that there are many people cheering on the efforts to get that production line rolling again, getting the dedicated, ultra-loyal workers back doing what they do best, and in getting that new 9-3 out and other new models back onto the streets of Trollhattan and Newfoundland.
So thanks to the people who built my Saab and my sincere thanks to the people who are trying to breathe new life into the sails. From where I sit tonight, there seems to be a ray of light on my bonnet.
I am waiting for the griffin to take flight again, and I want to simply say thanks to the wonderful craftsmen and women who shared their talents and passion, so I could smile through every mile I’ve driven in my Saab. So thank you to Steven, to SU, and to VM and all the others, who have done so much to keep the dream alive. Believe me, it’s worth every minute of work. There are many people standing behind you.
I’m sure there’ll be some significant news this week and we’ll cover it as it happens. But I also wanted to share a little of what you’re doing in the Saab world – ie. our customers, our fans.
There have been quite a few events on recently, and I’ve received a couple of personal emails from people that I’d like to share, too.
We’re closing in on an important milestone on our Saab Facebook page – 100,000 fans – and we’d like to do something special to celebrate that as well. If you’ve not joined the party on Facebook, log in and ‘Like’ us.
We’d like you to be part of these celebrations, too. We’d like you to get your camera out, or trawl through your hard drive and send us images of your Saab. We’ll be putting together a downloadable mosaic image featuring as many of your photos as we can.
Get your photos ready. We’ll put out a call for them during the next week and we need HEAPS of them.
Many have highlighted October 14 as a possible date when the NDRC would take its decision regarding Saab’s planned business agreements with Pang Da and Youngman. For third parties it is not possible to know exactly when authorities like the NDRC will take their decisions.
The reason for October 14 spreading the way it has, is an early assumption made by Saab in court documents, based on general process information that Pang Da and Youngman received from the NDRC. The fact that we didn’t receive any decision from the NDRC today has no bearing on the decision process in its entirety and is not something from which we should draw any conclusions.
Pang Da and Youngman are very committed to making our partnership a success as proven by yesterday’s announcement regarding the first payments under our bridge financing agreement with Youngman.
In other words, Keep Calm and Carry On. We can’t control the timing of the NDRC process, we can only make best estimates of when their decision will come, which is what we did in our court documents.
We’re yet to see the full depth of Jason Castriota’s design work for Saab Automobile – a fact not lost in this NY Times profile of Saab’s current design chief.
This brief profile ends a little too quickly for my liking, but it’s a nice backgrounder for those who don’t know a lot about Jason’s career so far.
Right: Jason with PhoeniX at Chelsea Piers, in New York
The article traces his beginnings as an art student in the north-eastern US and follows his accelerated rise to prominence after leaving the US for jobs with Pininfarina and Bertone in Italy. There is a quite a lot of Saab-talk in the article, but given that his public work with Saab is confined so far to the PhoeniX concept car, there is more talk about the company than the vehicle, which is a little disappointing.
Like you, I’m very much looking forward to a time when they re-visit articles like this and have a lot more to talk about in terms of vehicles.
For now, though, this is a good article and it’s great for Saab and for Jason to be featured in the NY Times.
It’s always great to see our dealerships conducting activities like these to bring their customers together.
Mitchell Saab are a long-standing Saab and Volvo dealership based in Simsbury, Connecticut – right in the heart of Saab country in the USA.
This weekend, they’re hosting their 30th Annual Swedish Beauty Contest. There will be a free Mini Detail and Service Clinic running at the event as well.
I was tipped off to the event by Steve F, who runs the Saabfans website, and he writes as follows:
We attended the event last year, and although smaller than some gatherings, it was attended by great Saab and Volvo drivers as well as the wonderful owners and staff at Mitchell.
Simsbury, Connecticut is a beautiful town, and we are approaching the time of year for excellent fall foliage viewing, so why not take a nice Fall drive in your favorite Saab or Volvo and head over to Mitchell for the 2011 Swedish Beauty Contest
It sounds like a wonderful setting and a great way to take in some beautiful scenery in a beautiful Saab. With winter coming on, it might one of your last chances to do so before the spring.
If you’re in the region, perhaps you should plan on calling in.
What: Mitchell Saab 30th Annual Swedish Beauty Contest When: Saturday, October 15th Where: Mitchell Saab, 348 Hopmeadow St, Simsbury, CT
