Yesterday Pang Da told Swedish television SVT that China's National Development and Reform Commission will not allow Pang Da to send more money to Saab to secure wage payments and keep the company in the reconstruction process.
"We want to save Saab, but we can not," said Yang Guangy, spokesman for Pang Da to SVT.
The NDRC has put the brakes on regarding more money transfers to Saab from China. When the Chinese plans changed from becoming part to full owners of Saab, the NDRC restarted the whole process of investigating the deal. And now noone knows when this process will be completed.
"The NDRC is not transparent and it is hard to get information from them. Now we can only wait on a approval and until then we are not allowed to send any more money to Saab in Sweden," Yang Guangy said.
A piece of good news is that the troubles former Saab suitor Vladimir Antonov has run into, has not made the Chinese less interested in Saab. As reported here earlier, Vladimir Antonov's banks in Lithuania and Latvia have collapsed and there are money missing. Money that some said could have gone to Saab.
To Dagens Industri a source familiar with the negotiations between Saab's current owner Swedish Automobile and the Chinese suitors Pang Da and Youngman over the sale of Saab, says that the Chinese still want to acquire Saab.
"It is not a decisive factor. It does not affect their wish to do business. When the Chinese have bough Saab there will be no relations between Swedish Automobile and the Chinese," the source told DI.
But now more than ever, the Chinese want to be full owners of Saab and not just part owner. If they are full owners they can cut all ties to Swedish Automobile, Victor Muller and Vladimir Antonov. Question is if General Motors will sell technology to a fully Chinese owned Saab.
"The willingness and the possibility to keep Swedish Automobile as a part owner is very limited now under the current situation," the source said.
Even though the Chinese are saying that they can't send more money to Saab, Saab itself is still optimistic about raising the money needed for the wage payments.
"We know that we can't pay exactly on time, but we are hoping that we can pay in the beginning of next week," Eric Geers told TT.
Regarding General Motors reluctancy to a 100 percent Chinese owned Saab, Geers said the following:
"We will have to wait and hope that we can reach a solution that is acceptable for both the Chinese and GM."
