NEVS gets lifeline, may lose rights to Saab

After filing for bankruptcy a few days ago, Saab's parent company National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) has been recently granted bankruptcy protection by the District Court of Vanersborg in Sweden.

The move was originally pushed by the Board of Directors of NEVS to create more time in negotiating a deal with two potential partners, of which they did not disclose.

“The tripartite negotiations we have with two global vehicle manufacturers are still progressing, but are complex and have taken more time than we predicted. We need additional time to complete the negotiations and reach an agreement. Therefore, we apply for a reorganization. We intend to fully pay our debts to our suppliers,” said NEVS President Mattias Bergman.

The decision was first rejected by the Swedish court, stating that the plans implied by NEVS are "vague and completely undocumented." The court also said that there are no details of how much funding was needed and how much was going to be received by the company.

NEVS was going to appeal about the court's decisions but the government's debt collectors and evictors, the Swedish Enforcement Authority, were already given the greenlight in selling NEVS' assets to pay suppliers.

It was only on August 29, 2014 when the courts finally decided to grant NEVS the protection they needed. The court assigned Mr. Lars Eric Gustafsson, Attorney at Hamilton Law Firm in Stockholm, Sweden as administrator during the reorganization period.

The move however, may lose NEVS the right to produce cars under the Saab name. Quoted by the Swedish daily business paper Dagens Industri, a Saab AB spokesperson said that since NEVS has filed for bankruptcy, Saab AB had the right to cancel the brand agreement. A spokeserson from NEVS said that expect to be able to renegotiate the brand agreement after finding a way to keep the company afloat.

Source: Reuters