Today the Saab bankruptcy administrators Anne-Marie Pouteaux and Hans Bergqvist held their bi-weekly press briefing. Here is a summary:
According to the administrators, the deadline to place final bids have been set to April 10th after consulting the interested parties. Earlier unconfirmed reports have said that the deadline was March 31st, that deadline has now been pushed.
"We have had two intense weeks. We have focused on the sale process. The interested parties are working very intensely. We have had visits from companies among other things. Together with the parties we have decided to push the date for final bids to the first day after Easter."
The administrators said that they have a time table for the sale, but it will depend on the final bids if that time table holds up. Earlier they said that the goal is to finish the sale before the summer.
The administrators said that they are currently working on finding solutions to questions and a challenges raised by the interested parties.
The administrators are confident that the parties which are still part of the process will place final bids. All parties, except Brightwell Holdings, are still in the race.
And more important, all remaining parties are interested in manufacturing cars in Trollhättan. The administrators could however not say if cars will be built under the Saab brand, but they did confirm that all the interested parties are interested in buliding cars based on Saab technology.
The administrators have also been in contact with General Motors (GM) and been given insight into GM's view and position on the bankruptcy sale. GM's position is interesting seeing that most of Saab's cars are built on technology licensed from GM. Earlier GM has said a definite no to licensing technology to any new owner of Saab. The administrators would however not comment on what position GM has expressed to the administrators.
"That is something we will only discuss with the bidding parties," they said.
Another concern has been the shattering of the expertise when engineers and technicians from Saab were laid off earlier this year.
The administrators said that several skillfull and knowledgeable technicians are currently working for the bankruptcy estate and that there are many former Saab workers with technical skills still in the region and thus available for the interested parties either as employees or consultants.
Another interesting piece of information from today's press briefing, is that the debts of Saab is around SEK 12 - 13 billion according to administrator Hans Bergqvist. And the assets amount to much less. The inventory of the estate, where all debts and assets will be presented, will be made public Tuesday next week.
A blog fueled by enthusiasm about Saab, the greatest car company between the North and the South Pole. And their cars, which probably is the only cars that would start on a cold and crispy South Pole morning.
