Archive for the ‘Sweden’ Category

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Saab being pimped around the world by Victor Muller

May 12, 2011

Swedish Radio has just announced that the agreement between Saab and Hawtai has been suspended and negotiations continue!!!

I have little confidence in Victor Muller and his jet-setting around the world – at Saab’s expense – ostensibly to save Saab, seems more and more like the acts of a charlatan. I have observed earlier that his high-profile chasing of Russian and Chinese money will probably lead nowhere except to prolong the agony for Saab.

Svenska Dagbladet writes:

Saab’s new commercial venture with Chinese Hawtai is at risk of collapse. Saab’s President Victor Muller has already started planning to go to China for new negotiations with previously upset Chinese automakers. But Chinese car companies feel themselves cheated by Muller.

After Hawtai’s delegation visited Saab factory in Trollhättan at the end of last week they were  aghast at how bad the situation was. They then demanded tough renegotiations with Victor Muller. If Hawtai and Saab cannot agree before the deadline for the contract expires tomorrow the deal may be over. 

According to SvD’s industry sources, the agreement between Dutch Spyker, which owns Saab, and Hawtai is only a framework agreement. The agreement that was presented with great fanfare on 3rd May is full of ecape clauses that Hawtai can use if the parties fail to agree. Now Saab’s President Victor Muller is preparing to travel to Beijing. He will try to repair bridges with Chinese companies he has previously been in conflict with. Two relevant companies are the Great Wall Motor company and the government car giant BAIC. … Neither Great Wall nor BAIC have any affection for Muller. “BAIC can consider buying Saab, but they do not like Muller, they know that he has deceived them”, says a key figure in the affair. … BAIC believed they had the rights to the Saab 9-3 when Saab announced that they intended to produce in China with Hawtai. Until mid-April BAIC negotiated for the Saab dealership in China. And till April 30th Great Wall negotiated with Saab. Great Wall is a large and successful private Chinese automaker. But the negotiations ended because Great Wall needed at least one more week to do a due diligence and to have a board meeting, which Muller felt that the bleeding Saab did not have time for. Three days later, on May 3, he presented the Hawtai agreement. Great Wall reacted very negatively and it was not alone. Even private automaker Youngman Automobile Group of Hangzhou reacted sharply. “We were extremely disappointed and upset”, said one of Youngman’s management team . “ We have a written contract with Spyker that they could not negotiate with any other Chinese company before we were done. We took it for granted that they would follow the rules”. 

Spyker had had negotiations ongoing with at least three other Chinese companies, Great Wall, Hawtai and another company. Youngman says they began negotiations for Saab in January. They also signed a letter of intent on cooperation. Youngman Automobile is the only company that has already submitted an application for Saab and an investment permit to the Chinese National Reform and Development Commission, NDRC. 

Victor Muller clearly cannot be trusted and his ethics are highly suspect.

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Posted in Automobiles, Behaviour, Ethics, Sweden, Technology | 4 Comments »

Reality: Quality and price are the buying criteria, not the environment

May 11, 2011

Reality is based on what people do and not on what do-gooders, alarmists and scaremongers say.

Svenska Dagbladet reports that:

Small companies ignore the environment

Sweden’s small-and medium-sized companies are primarily looking for quality and price when making purchases. The environment is least important according to the Visma Purchase Barometer, and low price is the most important. Environmentally friendly products are usually slightly more expensive and are at a disadvantage when companies chase low prices. Only 1.5 percent of Sweden’s small and medium-sized enterprises consider the environment as the most important criterion when making purchases. Quality and price are the most crucial according to the Visma  survey of more than 1600 small and medium-sized businesses.

But 1.5 percent is still a remarkably low figure given that climate change has been so hot the last few years”, says Henrik Salwen, CEO of VismaAdvantage. The companies were asked to specify one of six criteria and Quality was the most important followed by price and punctual delivery. The environment was the least important.

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Posted in Behaviour, Environment, Sweden | Comments Off on Reality: Quality and price are the buying criteria, not the environment

Saab motors being degraded on life support – euthanasia would be better

May 9, 2011

For twenty years the Saab 9000 and the Saab 9.5 were my cars of choice until “old age” has forced me to the blend of comfort and power that a Mercedes represents.

But Saab Motors is now on life support and in the hands of a Victor Muller who resembles a quack doctor extracting every bit he can from a dying patient. Saab’s production has been halted while new transfusions of money are being desperately sought – from very strange and dubious Russian and Chinese sources. The employees continue to hope and their attempts to push back the day of reckoning is perfectly understandable. But the fundamental reality is that not enough Saab cars are bought and it has become too expensive for what it is. The technology is still superb but in the meantime the Saab brand is being dragged through mud and manure.

Euthanasia is preferable to this degradation of the brand.

The Chinese money is unlikely to be forthcoming.

Dagens Industri writes:

Saab’s affaire with Chinese Hawtai has led to questions in the Chinese media. Experts are cautious about the marriage, and it is feared it will be stopped by the authorities. Hong Kong-based Phoenix television station says on its site ifeng.com

“Saab is not Volvo. The established Chinese car companies are not interested in Saab, and therefore this contract has come between Saab and Hawtai, two companies that both are in need to get out of a difficult situation. But what are the chances that the agreement be implemented? “

The Chinese Commission on Development and Reform NDRC, has to approve major transactions between Chinese and foreign companies. “Just as when Tengzhong Heavy Industrial tried to buy the Hummer this agreement between Hawtai and Saab has not been reported to the NDRC in advance, and therefore it has not been approved. It is therefore difficult to say whether this project will be approved. Further, the establishment of a joint venture for the manufacture and sale of Saab Cars is even more difficult.”

In recent times there has been a very strict control on approval of joint ventures for the manufacture of complete cars. “Even the long discussed projects between Changan Mazda Guangzhou Automobile and Mitsubishi, between Changan and PSA Peugeot Citroen, and the proposed Volkswagen plant expansions in Nanhai and Jiangsu are all still waiting for approval. To think that Saab Cars, which does not have as much advanced technology, would be allowed into manufacture and sale in China is less likely.”

Industry observers think that Hawtai’s and Saab’s agreement on strategic cooperation may suffer the same fate as Tengzhongs purchase of Hummer, and ultimately not be anything at all, according to Phoenix. 

Even the South China Morning Post questioned whether authorities would approve the deal.

And in the meantime Saab suppliers have had to warn that they may be forced to lay-off their employees.

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Posted in Automobiles, Engineering, Sweden, Technology | 1 Comment »

Here come the health-fascists – now an obesity tax!!

April 28, 2011

The world is full of “do-gooders” who in the name of the good of the majority indulge in introducing new and wonderful ways of oppressing the minority. The environmental and health fascists who use coercive means – usually taxes and the banning of substances and even the behaviour  of others – have converted the oppression of those who don’t think as they do into a fine art.

The two latest health-fascists are members of a so-called expert group, Dan Andersson and Anna Fransson who want to tax people for being fat – for their own good and the good of society of course.

And to rub salt into the wound,  tax-payer’s money is used to generate this rubbish.

Svenska Dagbladet reports:

To stop the runaway cost of Swedish obesity a “fat tax” should be introduced,  according to a new report “Calories Cost” released by the Expert Group on Public Finance (ESO) on Thursday and written by Dan Andersson and Anna Fransson

They estimate that the cost to the public sector, in terms of healthcare and social insurance due to obesity was 15 billion kronor in 2003, a figure that could rise by between 40 and about 80 percent by 2020, according to the report.

 The authors consider that there are good reasons for the government to do something about the weight trap. “Fat taxes” could be invested in, for example, bike lanes and general public health surveys of adults.

Health costs could be minimised further by introducing a birth tax and perhaps with the tax increasing for every year of survival. This could even encourage people to commit suicide once they retire and their  economic burden becomes too heavy – for the good of the majority of course. It would solve the pensions problem and the ageing problem as well.

Perhaps it is time to introduce legislation prohibiting the fascism of “do-gooders” and banning all expert groups.

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Posted in Alarmism, Behaviour, Sweden | 1 Comment »

Juholt continues his Stalinesque purge

April 1, 2011
Håkan Juholt continues with his Stalinesque purge of the Swedish Social Democrats. Male social democrats who are out of favour are being replaced on the grounds of being the wrong sex! But sex discrimination in this form is of course politically correct.
Purges continue in the Social Democratic party leader after the change. Now it is the turn  of the assigned group leader in parliament, Sven-Erik Osterberg, who was one of candidates to become the new party leader, to go.
A new leader will be appointed at the parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday next week. Who  the new team leader will be is unclear. According to Rapport’s sources  the new party leader Håkan Juholt plans to fill the post with a woman. He has been in talks with party colleagues and said that it is important to have a woman in the post  to get a reasonably even gender balance in leadership positions in the party.
Sven-Erik Osterberg wanted to remain as leader, but after talks with Håkan Juholt agreed to step down.

Earlier Ibrahim Baylan was forced to quit a Party Secretary to make way for Carin Jämtin. This was necessary since the new Party Leader was a male and had to be “balanced” by a female Party Secretary! And now the unfortunate Osterberg is also apparently of the wrong sex. Sounds as if this is yet another case of  politically correct  sex discrimination being used to implement a political purge.

In the modern Social Democrats, competence is of little value if you are the wrong sex.

Related:  Juholt, the smiling Stalin, begins the purge as the Social Democrats try to relive the past

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Posted in Behaviour, Politics, Sweden | Comments Off on Juholt continues his Stalinesque purge

Is cash crunch just a ruse to get SAAB into Russian ownership?

March 30, 2011

While SAAB’s production has ground to a halt as supplies dry up because of non-payment of suppliers dues and SAAB’s owners Spyker Cars sees its share price drop, comes news of further efforts by the Russian financier Vladimir Antonov to gain entry as an owner of SAAB. He has been trying to get in for some time and “money on the table” could be irresistible if Spyker and SAAB are really going through a cash crunch.

Vladimir Antonov

Spyker’s report warned – a little unexpectedly – of a cash crunch last Friday. Could it be that this is an elaborate ruse between Spyker and Antonov? I am probably being a little cynical but with Russian finance I have learnt that nothing is ever as it seems and conspiracy theories are not necessarily as far fetched as they might seem. The Swedish government does not want Antonov to get in as a SAAB owner but Victor Muller and Spyker Cars do.

I suspect that the liquidity crisis at SAAB has been – at least partly – engineered by Spyker and Antonov.

SvD reports:

The Russian financier Vladimir Antonov has filed a formal application to Sweden’s National Debt Office to go in as the owner of Saab Automobile. This was confirmed by  the Debt Office and Antonov himself for TTELA.

“We can confirm that we received an application from Vladimir Antonov, yesterday  (Tuesday)  evening, but, because of commercial confidentiality, can not say what it contains, “said Daniel Barr, project manager for Saab at the Debt Office, to TTELA.
Even Vladimir Antonov confirmed briefly that he had submitted an application. Previously, he has declared that he wants to go in with capital of between 440-620 million SEK , so that  Saab and its parent company Spyker Cars NV can get a better buffer capital. Such money could be used in times of a liquidity crisis.
The Debt Office will process the application and submit a statement to the Government. The government will then makes a decision on the matter. The Debt Office does not comment on applications received.

From the Spyker financial statements presented on Friday, it appears that cash flow reduced faster than expected in late 2010 partly because of  lower sales volumes and  large investments. At the end of 2010 the company had  negative equity and a working capital of 220 million euros, equivalent to almost 2 billion Swedish krona.
Vladimir Antonov and his banking group Convers Group.have submitted the  application to the Debt Office. Oleg Sukhorukov, vice president of Convers Group, would not give any additional comments.


Vladimir Aleksandrovich Antonov (born 1975) is a Russian banker, entrepreneur and investor. In 2007 Antonov’s personal wealth was estimated at $300,000,000 which ranks him as number 182 among Russian millionaires.

In February 2011, it was announced that Spyker Cars NV, the Dutch owner of Saab Automobile, agreed to sell its sports-car unit to Vladimir Antonov. Antonov, a former Spyker chairman and shareholder, is expected to pay 15 million euros ($21 million) for the company.

In 2007, Bankas Snoras acquired 29.9% of Dutch luxury automobile manufacturer, Spyker Cars, making Vladimir Antonov the single largest shareholder in the company.

In January 2010, it was reported that General Motors was preparing to sell Saab to Spyker for a nominal fee, and that the Swedish government had agreed to guarantee loans for the purchase from the European Investment Bank (EIB). If the takeover had been successful, the Saab brand and its operations would have been largely unaffected.

Antonov’s interests (29.9% of the shares) in Spyker Cars were said to have delayed the purchase of Saab Automobile in late 2009. An investigation by the Swedish monetary agency Riksgälden and the Swedish security police Säpo had allegedly found connections between the Antonov family and organized crime, as well as involvement in money laundering. Säpo reported their findings to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and shortly afterwards GM stopped further talks about the deal until the Antonov family had sold their shares in Spyker Cars.

In January 2011, it was reported that GM was preparing to reverse its decision not to allow Antonov to hold a financial interest in Spyker and Saab and allow him to invest. Antonov said that he has no “connection to any criminal people” and that he had hired an investigative firm to produce evidence that he has no criminal background.

Victor Muller Spyker cars

In December 2010, it was reported by Swedish financial newspaper, Dagens Industri, that two independent reports, one of which was commissioned by the Swedish government had shown that there was no evidence that Vladimir Antonov is guilty of any of the accusations made against him. Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker Cars, also stated that he believed Vladimir Antonov to be innocent of the accusations. Following this, Antonov acquired the sportcars division of Spyker Cars NV.

Maybe this all just to get Antonov to be a “white knight riding to SAAB’s rescue” but something does not smell right.

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Posted in Automobiles, Business, Russia, Sweden | 1 Comment »

Is SAAB Automobile nearing a bankruptcy?

March 30, 2011

When suppliers don’t get paid a vicious circle begins of : lack of cash >> unpaid dues>> lack of some critical supplies>> reduction of production>> stoppage of other supplies>> diminishing of trust>> withdrawal of credit >>leading to a further lack of cash. After years of living from hand-to-mouth but still producing what I consider one of the best cars on the road, SAAB automobile may now be approaching a fateful point in an illustrious history.

Svenska Dagbladet:

There are worrying signs that came out from Saab Automobile on Tuesday night. Saab may have suffered an acute liquidity crisis. Saab production, according to several sources came to a standstill on Tuesday because suppliers were not paid. Even union IF Metall’s Chairman Hakan Skött confirmed that production had stopped. And then came the news at 8pm on Tuesday night, that Saab’s advertising agency Lowe Brindfors had suspended their ongoing engagement due to nonpayment.

In recent weeks, warning bells have been ringing louder and louder. Saab’s new CFO quit before he even had time to start. And one of Saab’s heaviest funders, Pieter Heerema, who had lent 25 million U.S. dollars, recently abandoned Spyker’s board with immediate effect.

And then the CEO Jan Ake Jonsson left, oddly enough just last Friday after Spyker came up with its report – even if is due to stay until May on paper. But the issue of  of Saab’s liquidity has become serious just recently. When I asked the chairman Victor Muller last Friday in connection with the report whether Saab has enough capital to pay bills this year, he replied that “probably not”. The report also described that liquidity is lower than expected. But Muller was talking in his characteristically intense way that they will find solutions – including selling their new platform Phoenix to other automakers.

But the signals that came in Tuesday night are very worrying.

Saab could choose to put a lid on it.

It would be of great regret if SAAB Automobiles went bankrupt. But perhaps SAAB have had their day and it is time to move on.

 

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Juholt, the smiling Stalin, begins the purge as the Social Democrats try to relive the past

March 22, 2011

The Social Democrats in Sweden will have their convention at the end of this week where Håkan Juholt will be confirmed by a vast majority, if not unanimously, as their new leader. It will all seem very democratic of course even though the party’s Nomination Committee produced his name out of a hat at the last minute after a very obscure and confusing process reminiscent of a Soviet style politburo election in action.

Håkan Juholt : image ulf-vargek.blogspot.com

While Juholt’s physical resemblance to a smiling Stalin is meant partly in jest, the coup by the left wing of the party and the subsequent purge of the more moderate and “right-wing” leaders is anything but a jest. There may not be much real blood spilled in these days but the elimination of the “opposition” is as ruthless as anything Stalin perpetrated. In an organisational sense the Social Democrats are the true inheritors of the power broking style of the communist parties of the Soviet bloc. The smoke-filled rooms are gone (since this is Sweden and smoking is almost as sinful as any hint of male chauvinism and certainly more sinful than paedophilia) but the back-rooms are still around and the influence of the power brokers still reigns supreme.

Of course a new leader will appoint his friends around him. But guilt by association has been created as a new sin within the Social Democrats. The Nomination Committee has done its job well and prepared the way for a purge. Where unwanted individuals actually proposed policies more in line with the electorate, they have been blamed for the election defeat without reference to policies so that they can be removed. Where favoured individuals backed the losing policies they have anyway been “promoted” as being the instruments of rejuvenation. But all of this is merely an attempt to step back to the “good old times” of 40 years ago.

The Svenska Dagbladet writes:

The ousting of Ylva Johansson and Thomas Östros is extraordinary. The latter is being punished for being Mona Sahlin’s candidate for finance minister. There seems also to be a new principle that not only the leader shall be held accountable for policy failures.

It looks like a shift to the left. (So the Social Democrats) dismiss Thomas Östros who criticized the Social Democrats’ fiscal policies from the right and selects Veronica Palm who has defended the tax policy adopted before the election.

I wonder how long it will take for the Social Democrats to realise that trying to recreate “good old times” is a cul-de-sac.


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Posted in Behaviour, Politics, Sweden | 2 Comments »

Spring is here and so is the snow!

March 18, 2011

The official definition of Spring in Sweden is when the average daily temperature exceeds 0°C for 7 days in a row. This was the picture on 14th March (blue indicating temperatures below zero, yellow for temperatures currently above zero and green for regions where spring had arrived with 7 consecutive days with average temperatures above zero). The headlines were celebrating the arrival of spring.

Arrival of Spring in Sweden

Årstidskarta, 2011

Arrival of Spring in Sweden 2011-03-14: map by SMHI

Yesterday it felt almost spring like with bright sunshine through the temperature was only 3 C°. The snow and ice from the winter were melting away and it was time to sweep away the gravel and sand laid down at various places through the very cold winter.

But the view from my window this morning has brought us crashing back to reality >>>>>>>

 

Finspång, 0800 18th March 2011: image k2p

 

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Posted in Sweden, Weather | Comments Off on Spring is here and so is the snow!

Håkan Juholt – A Stalin with a smile for the Swedish Social Democrats?

March 15, 2011
Swedish papers size up Håkan Juholt

Håkan Juholt. photo Bertil Ericsson / Scanpix

The Social Democratic party in Sweden have been choosing a new leader to replace Mona Sahlin who resigned after the party’s debacle in the last general elections. To the surprise of many the Nomination Committee has proposed Håkan Juholt, a member of Parliament for 15 years and chairman of the parliament’s defence committee but a relative unknown.

Though I am no expert, I find the Social Democrat’s selection process for a new leader a remarkable example of old-fashioned politburo machinations masquerading as a democratic and open process. A secretive nomination cloaked by an apparently open vote of approval at a party convention — but where the the Nomination Committee’s proposals are always adopted. The Nomination Committee itself works in some unknown fashion where “consultation” with all the party districts is carried out through some mysterious and  secret channels. The surprise expressed by so many Social Democrats at the committees  final choice of Håkan Juholt also demonstrates that there was no obvious choice by a majority. Traditionalism and back-room deals by a small cabal still controls the Social Democrats. Their so-called “democratic selection” is just a sham.

The nomination of Juholt is considered a coup for the left wing of the party. The Local:

According to a poll published on Friday in the Metro newspaper, nearly two thirds of Swedes surveyed said they had no idea who Juholt was, while an additional 22 percent said they only knew his name.

Metro went on to compare Juholt to Super Mario of the eponymous video game. Both have mustaches and both are heroes, although Super Mario fights “flame-throwing turtles” while Juholt’s main enemy is a “centre-right Alliance that stole his voters”.

The Social Democrat-supporting Aftonbladet praised Juholt’s folksy appeal and the fact that he had “visited every Social Democratic association between Ystad and Haparanda”, two cities in the far south and far north, respectively.

While concluding that the choice of Juholt “could very well work”, Aftonbladet cautioned that “despite Julholt’s many years in national politics, one can’t find a single political idea that he’s promoted”.

The independently liberal Expressen labeled Juholt “a compromiser’s compromise”, adding that the choice of Juholt, along with Carin Jämtin as party secretary, was a “major victory for the party’s left”. ..

The independently liberal-conservative Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) lamented that those who hoped for a “dynamic and future-oriented fountain of ideas behind the mustache” will likely be disappointed.

The paper points out that Juholt is no fan of “renewal”, but that he was approved because he has a “sufficiently weak profile so he can’t challenge the traditionalists”.

Interestingly the previous party secretary resigned his post one day before the nominations were announced and while he gave family reasons it was obvious that he had to do so only because he was male. The balance of the sexes had to be maintained with a female party secretary, Carin Jämtin, having to be nominated to balance the nomination of Juholt as party leader.

Political correctness in the shape of maintaining an equality of the sexes in Sweden sometimes goes to extraordinary lengths and often leads to the downgrading of talent and competence as selection parameters.

In any event the leftward lurch of the Social Democrats is a knee-jerk manifestation of the longing for the “good old times” of a party which has lost its way. It is hardly likely to lead to a rejuvenation of the party which is badly needed.

And Juholt is not , in my opinion, going to be a Super Mario. He is likely to prove to be a smiling Stalin.

I now expect a purge of right-wing and centrist members from the Social Democrats.


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Posted in Politics, Sweden | 7 Comments »

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