Sweden

Ailing Swedish carmaker Saab and its court-appointed administrator Guy Lofalk want him replaced amid reports of disagreement as the company struggles to stay in business, a court said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The court is due to decide whether to keep Saab in a scheme which grants it protection from creditors while it secures itself a stable future. Lofalk, who applied to have the creditor protection scheme ended, now wants to leave his position.

Swedish carmaker Saab faced a fresh threat to its existence on Wednesday when a court-appointed administrator said its protection from bankruptcy should be removed due to a failure to secure Chinese investments, Reuters reported. Saab, one of Sweden's best-known brands, has been teetering on the brink since early last year when a cash crunch forced it to halt production. It currently has court protection from creditors and possible bankruptcy claims.

General Motors Co said on Tuesday it would not support a proposed ownership structure for Saab that included a Chinese bank, moving the Swedish auto company closer to liquidation, Reuters reported. "We have reviewed Saab's proposed changes regarding the sale of the company," GM spokesman James Cain said in a statement. "Nothing in the proposal changes GM's position. We are unable to support the transaction." GM has said it would be difficult to support a sale of Saab that hurts GM's competitive position in China and other key markets.

Saab's Dutch owner and China's Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile have agreed that the Bank of China , the nation's fourth-largest bank by market value, will come in as part owner of the ailing carmaker, according to a source familiar with the deal, Reuters reported. Under the new deal, the Bank of China will replace Chinese investor Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. Youngman and the Bank of China will own just under 50 percent of the company. The move could help pave the way for an approval by General Motors , which still has preferential shares in Saab and rejected an earlier rescue plan.

Car maker Saab will still for now enjoy legal protection from creditors, the court-appointed lawyer overseeing a reconstruction process for the company said on Tuesday after General Motors rejected a Chinese bid for the company, Reuters reported. GM had said on Monday it would stop supplying components and technology to Saab if two Chinese companies succeeded with their acquisition bid -- a hardening in its opposition to the proposed sale of Saab which called into question the survival of the niche brand, which has been under court protection from creditors since September.

The turnaround plan presented Monday for troubled Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile AB is far from complete, said Martin Larsson, the company's executive director of new business development and, according to speculation in Swedish media, the company's next chief executive. The Swedish district court in Vanersborg on Monday gave the company the go-ahead to continue its reorganization under creditor protection, after Chinese companies Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co.

Swedish car maker Saab Automobile AB said Thursday it cannot formally respond to the administrator of its reorganization's request to end the company's restructuring process, as it is in "intense negotiations" with investors to secure financing, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. "The end results of these negotiations, which could be ready at basically any time, are crucial to Saab's position" in the matter, Saab's general counsel, Kristina Geers, said in an email sent to the district court in Vanersborg.

Troubled Swedish car maker Saab Automobile AB edged closer to bankruptcy after it said it had terminated rescue funding agreements with Chinese auto makers Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. and Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., though the three companies remained in talks, The Wall Street Journal reported. Saab is restructuring its operations under creditor protection and is trying to avoid being closed, after the administrator of the restructuring process on Friday moved to have the company thrown out of receivership and declared insolvent.

Beleaguered Swedish carmaker Saab said on Thursday the administrator of its reorganisation plans to ask the court to halt the process, in a move that could force the company into bankruptcy, Agence France-Presse reported. Guy Lofalk, who has been appointed by the Vaenersborg district court in southwestern Sweden to oversee Saab's three-month restructuring process under bankruptcy protection, had informed the company he would ask that the process be terminated, Saab's Dutch owner Swedish Automobile (SWAN) said in a statement.

Struggling car maker Saab has not yet received the 70 million euros ($93 million) worth of bridge financing it needs to survive while it restructures under court protection, a spokesman said on Wednesday. Saab, which has scarcely produced a car for six months, said in mid-September the money was part of a license agreement with Chinese car firm Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile. "The money has not come in yet. We originally thought it would take about two weeks. The process is ongoing, and we will give information as soon as we have the money", Saab spokesman Eric Geers told Reuters.