Sweden

Saab Automobile owner Swedish Automobile NV said Wednesday it secured a €25 million ($35.9 million) bridge loan from hedge fund Gemini Investment Fund that will allow it to restart production soon, The Wall Street Journal reported. With the convertible bridge loan, the sale of real estate and an order for cars from an unnamed Chinese buyer, Saab Automobile this week has secured €66 million in funding.

Swedish Automobile NV Tuesday announced a partial sale and lease-back agreement on Saab Automobile's real-estate assets as the car maker continues its search for cash to pay workers and suppliers to enable it to restart production, The Wall Street Journal reported. A consortium of Swedish real estate investors, led by Hemfosa Fastigheter AB, will purchase 50.1% of the shares in Saab property for 255 million Swedish kronor ($39.6 million). Saab Automobile will enter into a lease agreement with Saab property for a duration of 15 years.

Swedish Automobile NV on Monday secured another short-term lifeline when an unidentified Chinese company bought 582 Saab cars for €13 million ($18.4 million) in cash, money the company wants to use to pay employee wages and some of the unpaid bills it owes its suppliers, The Wall Street Journal reported. However, the news immediately drew skepticism from supplier organization FKG, which said it wouldn't be enough to cover both the wage bill and supplier payments and wouldn't allow Saab to restart car production. The financial situation has been growing steadily worse at Saab.

A Swedish labor union Thursday threatened to force car maker Saab into bankruptcy proceedings over workers' unpaid wages, The Wall Street Journal reported. Union IF Metall said it now is gathering its members pay slips that haven't been honored in order to prepare requests for payment that will be sent to Saab Automobile. When Saab Automobile receives the requests, likely sometime next week, it will have a week to pay the claims. "If it does not have the money at that point, there is only one thing left to do," said Berko Davidovic, lawyer at IF Metall.

The family of Seán Quinn have moved to protect their international property empire from Anglo Irish Bank by issuing new shares in seven subsidiaries in Sweden to a company controlled by them, the Irish Times reported. Seven subsidiaries of Quinn Investments Sweden, the holding company behind the family’s properties in Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and India, have issued new shares to a company called Indian Trust AB, which they also control.

Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov said on Wednesday he still wants to take a 30 percent stake in troubled Swedish carmaker Saab, owned by Netherlands-based Swedish Automobile, Reuters reported. Antonov wants to invest 30 million euros in the cash-strapped carmaker. His plans is awaiting approval by the European Investment Bank. Saab is scrambling for funds to restart production after it was halted for most of April, May and June because it couldn't pay suppliers.

The Quinn family’s Swedish company is “hopelessly insolvent” and has no possibility of repaying massive loans owed to Anglo Irish Bank, lawyers for the bank told a Swedish court yesterday, the Irish Times reported. Quinn Investments Sweden has no more than 30,000 Swedish Krona (€3,277) in its coffers and lacks the assets to cover the 16 billion SEK (€1.8 billion) owed to the bank, Anglo’s lawyers said. Anglo wants a bankruptcy receiver appointed to Quinn Investments, the holding company for the family’s international properties in Russia, Sweden, Britain, Turkey and Ukraine.

Troubled Swedish carmaker Saab, owned by Netherlands-based Swedish Automobile , said on Tuesday it had offered a deal to suppliers over unpaid debts in an effort to get production restarted, Reuters reported. Saab said on Monday its Trollhattan factory in southern Sweden would be idle for two more weeks after having stood still for most of April and May because it could not pay its suppliers and ran out of parts.

Swedish car maker Saab has agreed a rescue package from two Chinese car companies, handing over a majority stake in return for a cash injection to avert a potential collapse, Reuters reported. Saab owner Spyker Cars said on Monday it had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding for Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co to take a 29.9 percent stake in the company and Chinese car distributor Pangda (601258.SS) to take a 24 percent stake for a combined 245 million euros ($352 million).

Swedish car maker Saab Automobile said production at its Trollhattan plant was halted Tuesday afternoon due to a lack of components, and is expected to start up again Wednesday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Saab resumed production at Trollhattan on May 27 after a two-month suspension. Production was halted after the auto maker failed to pay its bills and suppliers stopped delivering components. Upon resuming production, the company said it expected initial disturbances as it would take time to get everything running smoothly.