National Debt Office needs more info to decide on new ownership application

On Friday last week Saab Automobile handed in an application to the Swedish National Debt Office (NDO) to approve new part owners of Spyker Cars and thus of Saab. The new owners in question were Gemini Investment Funds Limited, which has given Saab a EUR 30 million loan that can be converted into shares, and Hawtai Motor Group which will give Saab a EUR 30 million covertible loan and also invest EUR 120 million in new Spyker Cars shares. Gemini Investment Funds already owns 8.11 per cent of Spyker Cars and needs an approval to increase the ownership to 10 per cent or more. Hawtai Motor needs and approval to own up to 29.9 per cent of Saab.


Now the National Debt Office says to Reuters that they need some more information from Saab before the NDO can continue the work on reviewing the application. Daniel Barr, Debt Office head of bank support and project leader for Saab, said the following:

"We have asked Saab questions about the new owners which we have not yet received answers to. How long it takes depends on when we get a response, the quality of the answers and how many follow-up questions the responses may raise."

Saab declined to comment specifically on the debt office's questions, but spokeswoman Gunilla Gustavs said:

"We think that the financing that we have put in place now is a good solution for Saab to get back to normal production and to bring the business forward."