The Saab Saga – now it’s a share sale to raise cash

Saab Saab sell shares to GEM Global

We’re not really sure we see how on earth the announcement from Saab that they are selling shares to raise funds is going to work. But we’ll report it anyway.

The information we have is that Swedish Automobile is going to issue shares to help pay the outstanding bills it has, and to meet unpaid salaries for white collar workers. Which sort of makes sense.

What really doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense are the numbers. Saab will issue 5 million shares and hope to raise around €7 million from GEM Global Yield Fund Ltd. Five million shares equates to a stake of around 17%, valuing the who kit and caboodle at around €40 million.

Back in May Saab revealed that they’d signed a deal with Hawtai for the Cinese company to take a 29.9% stake in Saab for €120 million. Since that deal went south after Chines regulatory approval was not forthcoming, Saab has flogged off assets to yield some cash on a lease-back deal.

Saab has also taken in – by our reckoning – up to €100 million during June and yet still can’t pay its bills or wages up to date. And now they’re taking in a paltry €7 million for 5% of the business. It doesn’t add up.

It’s starting to feel as though there may be something rotten in the State of Denmark. Things look odd.

I hope we’re wrong.

By Cars UK