As General Motors (GM) struggles to avoid bankruptcy despite billion dollar loans from the U.S. government, its two classic European manufacturers Saab and Opel are now up for sale. There are allegedly three bids on both the German Opel and Swedish Saab, but there has been less openness around the latter. The governments in both countries are trying to find solutions, but they seem less generous with taxpayers’ money than the U.S.
”We have three bids for Opel at the moment, but this does not automatically mean that a deal will go through. We must have a high degree of assurance that the large sums of taxpayers’ money we invest will not be lost,” German minister of economy, Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg told Bild am Sonntag.
”From where I stand, none of the interested parties can provide this assurance,” he added.
The Swedish government is equally careful. When Saab Automobile requested to negotiate to get 75 percent of their 348 million SEK (roughly US$ 45 million) debts to the Swedish state written off, they were denied.
”If we were to agree to write off this debt now, it’s a gamble. We don’t know if a new owner would be capable of running the company in a profitable way. We can’t act like this when it comes to taxpayers’ money,” said Mats Hagelin from Skatteverket (the Swedish IRS) to the newspaper Göteborgsposten.
Saab Automobile’s request to have its debts written off was submitted since more than half of its creditors agreed. However, they will need to convince 75 percent of the creditors to be able to have their debts written off in court. The company hopes that a new owner will have emerged before proceedings start on June 17.
”We have three bids for Opel at the moment, but this does not automatically mean that a deal will go through. We must have a high degree of assurance that the large sums of taxpayers’ money we invest will not be lost,” German minister of economy, Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg told Bild am Sonntag.
”From where I stand, none of the interested parties can provide this assurance,” he added.
The Swedish government is equally careful. When Saab Automobile requested to negotiate to get 75 percent of their 348 million SEK (roughly US$ 45 million) debts to the Swedish state written off, they were denied.
”If we were to agree to write off this debt now, it’s a gamble. We don’t know if a new owner would be capable of running the company in a profitable way. We can’t act like this when it comes to taxpayers’ money,” said Mats Hagelin from Skatteverket (the Swedish IRS) to the newspaper Göteborgsposten.
Saab Automobile’s request to have its debts written off was submitted since more than half of its creditors agreed. However, they will need to convince 75 percent of the creditors to be able to have their debts written off in court. The company hopes that a new owner will have emerged before proceedings start on June 17.
