AutóPRO - profi és prominens

The owner firm Swedish Automobile said early in August: we are in danger of running out of money for good. Swedish Automobile - Spyker as known earlier - booked 152 million EUR loss in the second quarter year after a 60 million deficit in the same period of 2010. Income has decreased from 198 million to 102 million after production halted for a long period of time because of money shortage. The firm’s debt has grown from 209 million to 284 million euros since March.

However, Saab still managed to sell more cars in the first six months: 12,000 vehicles were sold in the wholesale trade and 15,000 through retail dealers, which means a 26% and a 44% increase respectively in one year.

The owner - after a number of unsuccessful attempts - managed to come to an agreement with two Chinese companies - Pang Da Automobile Trade and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile - which can secure Saab’s survival for a while.

To achieve this, permission is needed from the Chinese and European authorities and that means short-term financing - primarily paying wages - still remains a problem for Saab.