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Bankruptcy looms larger for Saab as restructuring threatened
by Staff Writers
Stockholm (AFP) Oct 20, 2011


Beleaguered Swedish carmaker Saab said 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.

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.

Although the statement did not provide an explanation, Lofalk's decision indicates he does not think the restructuring will be successful.

If the court grants his petition, thousands of individual requests from unionised company employees and suppliers for Saab to be declared bankrupt, which have been put on ice during the reorganisation, will be activated again.

"Saab Automobile shall contest this application and request for continuation of the voluntary reorganisation process," SWAN said, adding that it also planned to "apply at the court for replacement of Mr. Lofalk as administrator."

Lofalk could not be immediately reached for comment.

Due to a mountain of unpaid bills, suppliers have stopped deliveries and production at the carmaker has been virtually halted since April.

A number of Saab's some 3,700 employees also saw their salaries delayed three months in a row.

The company's charismatic chief executive Victor Muller however convinced a Swedish appeals court last month that it would be possible for Saab to land on its feet if it could just keep its creditors at bay until regulatory approval goes through for its anticipated cash injection of 245 million euros ($335 million) from its Chinese partners Pang Da and Youngman.

The company, which says it has about 150 million euros in outstanding debt, has said it expects that cash injection in November.

SWAN pointed out that Lofalk conveyed his decision only shortly after the company on Thursday announced it had secured funding from US private equity firm North Street Capital, which is set to buy $10 million worth in shares on Friday and provide a loan of $60 million by the middle of next week.

That statement was not all good news however.

SWAN said it would accept the deal since "it has doubts that the (70-million-euro) bridge funding of Youngman and Pang Da, of which a partial payment has been received, shall be paid in full on October 22, 2011.

"Immediate availability of funding is necessary to continue the reorganisation process of Saab Automobile," it pointed out.

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Thai flooding halts Japan car production
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 20, 2011 - Flooding in Thailand has forced all nine Japanese automakers to halt manufacturing, cutting production by a total of 6,000 units a day, an industry leader said Thursday.

Other industries have also been hit, with Japanese electronics giant Sony saying it would postpone the launch of its latest digital single-lens reflex cameras and headphones because of the floods.

Toshiyuki Shiga, chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, said all nine Japanese automakers operating in Thailand had halted production after the floods.

"As a whole, production of 6,000 units has been affected on a daily basis," he told a news conference.

"Of the nine companies, which have halted plants, eight have done so because they could not procure parts sufficiently."

Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi are among the Japanese companies which have stopped production in Thailand.

Shiga, who is also Nissan's chief operating officer, said the parts makers were considering moving production elsewhere or shipping them in from other countries, including Japan.

According to his association, Japanese motor companies produced about 1.6 million units in Thailand last year.

Sony said flooding had halted production at the company's manufacturing base in Ayutthaya and its contracted plants and parts suppliers in the country.

The company said in a statement that it had planned to put on the market two types of digital single-lens reflex cameras on November 11 but the new launch date has yet to be decided.

The company had also planned to launch different types of headphones on November 10 and 21. Some of the models will be marketed instead on December 10 but the new launch date for the others will be decided later.

Sony has three manufacturing plants in Thailand.

Operations at the Ayutthaya plant, which produces digital cameras, has been halted since October 11 as flooding disrupted the supply of parts and prevented workers from coming to work, Sony spokeswoman Satsuki Shinnaka said.

"On October 14, floodwater began to inundate the plant's building and part of its equipment there has since been affected," she said.



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Laboratory on Wheels
Munich, Germany (SPX) Oct 20, 2011
Electric and hybrid vehicles will be conquering the cities: cars, bicycles, buses and trains. This is why new ideas are in demand for individual and public transportation. In "Fraunhofer's System Research for Electromobility" researchers are coming up with solutions for tomorrow's mobility. The AutoTram is as long as a streetcar and as maneuverable as a bus. It doesn't need rails or overhe ... read more


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