Posts Tagged ‘Vladimir Antonov’

Where are Muller’s Saab shares going?

August 22, 2011

The end-game for Saab is being played out and I can’t help feeling that – unlike for Gaddafi – this end-game is still one designed by Vladimir Antonov and implemented by Victor Muller. Svenska Dagbladet reports today:

Confidence in Saab is faltering as two major car dealers have stopped selling Saab in Sweden and also in the U.S. 

Meanwhile Victor Muller is “lending” his private shares to the fund that recently bought newly issued and discounted Saab shares to raise cash to pay salaries. And  it seems that to avoid the dilution of shares a complicated deal is being done with Muller’s shares

Saab (actually the parent company Swedish Automobile) in August, in a last desperate measure, used cash from GEM fund to pay salaries. GEM’s business is to buy newly printed shares at a discount and then sell them at a profit on the open market. This provided Saab with a needed cash injection, but was also a dangerous dilution with the risk that the stock price would go down.

The Dutch financial agency AFM, has said that now Victor Muller has got rid of almost half of his shares, 3.3 million and converted them into stock options along with 2.5 million unlisted class A shares.

“I sold zero shares, but lent my shares to GEM to allow them to sell them. I get non-listed A shares of the Company as compensation” Muller said in a an SMS text message. According to the AFM, it means at this time that Muller’s influence has decreased from 8.5 million to 3.6 million voting shares. According to Muller, the options are now directly convertible into A shares. “There is an instant convert to A shares and there are no conditions associated with stock options” he writes in his SMS.

Worker’s wages are due on Thursday and white-collar employees should be paid on Friday. Saab itself has been emptied of cash and assets and this may be another ploy. Of course money Muller raises by lending his own shares is cash to his private account. It can only get into Saab’s coffers if he provides a secure loan of some kind to Saab and I am sure he will not lose out as other creditors will in the event of an insolvency.

In the meantime Swedish authorities – the Swedish Enforcement Administration, or Kronofogden – have launched an official debt collection probe of  Saab where unpaid bills have been piling up for months as a first step in what could end in bankruptcy. Kronofogden’s Hans Ryberg announced last week that the probe results from the unpaid bills of  Sweden’s Infotiv, owed 224,000 kronor, and of Norway’s Kongsberg, owed 145,000 kronor.

Production has been at a standstill since April.

Related: Saab being plundered by Victor Muller and his friends

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

Victor Muller’s games continue: Are the new Saab shares ending up in Russian hands?

August 16, 2011

Victor Muller is at his games again even as Saab’s cash crunch continues. He has delayed payments to employees, suppliers, creditors and even the tax-man. The China card seems to be played out. Suppliers who start proceedings for bankruptcy get priority in getting paid. Workers get priority in getting their wages before white-collar employees. The trade unions are desperate and go along with anything as they hope for some miraculous solution. Russian “black” money – which needs to be laundered somewhere – is waiting to swoop through the back-door even if it has been barred entrance through the front-door. My own opinion is that even the initial liquidity crisis was engineered by Victor Muller by shifting cash out of Saab.

He is now engaged in the final desperate end-game at Saab (but of course without risking any of his own personal wealth). The question is whether it is his own end-game or one where he is just a proxy for his Russian masters.

Svenska Dagbladet reports:

Saab is issuing freshly printed shares at a loss to the U.S. investment fund GEM (Global Yield Fund Limited), which then sell them on at a profit. An arrangement made for the short term to pay salaries and debts. Saab is now selling four million new shares for just under 40 million Swedish kronor. GEM also purchased shares in a new issue on 3rd August – when 5 million new shares were sold in a desperate move to pay the salaries of Saab employees.

Not only are GEM well paid (because they are taking a big risk), they are also diluting the ownership of Saab’s other shareholders. In fact, these 10 million shares conveyed in a short time to GEM represents almost a third of the total shares. GEM acts only as intermediary and who is actually buying is a mystery.

GEM Yield Funds Ltd. buys shares for 90 percent of their value and then sells them on. These shares are then traded in Amsterdam. Using GEM is considered a very expensive way for Saab to raise cash but there are few options left. Issuing just another 10 million new shares could dilute the ownership sufficiently for a single owner of just the new shares to have a majority stake. And that for less than a total of 80 million kronor (about $13 million). Whether production will ever restart is looking increasingly unlikely – at least for Saab in its present form. What would happen to Saab if it ever came fully under the control of Vladimir Antonov is anybody’s guess. I suspect that Saab’s fate would then be connected more to being a money-laundering centre than to the production of quality cars. I would not be in the least surprised to find that the newly issued shares are ending up in Russian hands. The mark-up that GEM charges is probably worthwhile and represents an acceptable discount for the laundering of “funny” money.

Related: Let Saab die with some dignity

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Posted in Automobiles, Behaviour, Business, Sweden | 3 Comments »

Saab fights liquidity crisis while Victor Muller plays a game

April 6, 2011
Victor Muller, Founder and CEO of Spyker Cars,...

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SAAB’s production has ground to a halt again and will probably not start again for a week because suppliers are not being paid and they are stopping supplies. But Victor Muller still gets his bonus for following the business plan which suggests that the cash crisis is being engineered.

Over the weekend, Victor Muller was very critical of the suppliers who stopped deliveries when they didn’t get paid and accused them of carrying out negotiations in the media. He denied that SAAB Automobiles had any long standing liquidity crisis and that they were merely renegotiating supplier terms and conditions.

But a continuing shortage of supplies has caused the production line at SAAB to have stopped again and it may stand still till next Tuesday. It seems clear that Victor Muller will drive SAAB to the verge of bankruptcy to ensure that Vladimir Antonov can be seen as a rescuing angel and allowed in as SAAB’s owner. He may even drive it through a bankruptcy. Whether it is Victor Muller just playing his games or whether it is a strategy being directed by Antonov is not clear. But cash flow is the fundamental basis of any business plan of substance and it seems apparent to me that a good part of the cash crunch is being engineered by Muller / Spyker and probably Antonov.

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

Dagens Industri reports:

On Tuesday Automaker Saab stopped production at the plant in Trollhättan. Sources said that the stop will be extended until Tuesday next week. Yesterday’s stop is the third in a week, and is caused by the car manufacturer’s problems in paying subcontractors on time.

Saab’s CIO Eric Geers would not confirm that production will be stationary for that long, but said that production has stopped until the material problems are solved. The company is working right now to resolve the funding issue.

“We are working really hard to find a solution and are trying to get started as quickly as possible. At the same time we want to get rid of this jerky production flow, “he says.

…….  Saab management’s way of responding to concerns and criticism on this occasion has not been the best.

Meanwhile Svenska Dagbladet reported:

Victor Muller regrets that Saab presented a target for number of vehicles to be produced and distributed. Last year the forecast had to be reduced twice, which increased uncertainties regarding the company’s survival power. “It’s our own fault. We should never have gone out with some predictions. It’s so easy to measure that all else is lost sight of. The fact that we stayed within the business plan is ignored.

Retiring CEO Jan Ake Jonsson, admits that liquidity has become more strained in the second half of the first quarter. “There are a number of different reasons and I can not go into these because a variety of partners are involved”, he said before a large number of journalists who come to Saab’s spring exhibition. Jonsson stated that Saab has been very, very close to the expectations of the business plan. “In relation to the lower sales, we have managed to keep costs low”.

That they stayed within the business plan is the reason that both Muller and Jonsson got bonuses though Saab made a net loss of nearly two billion kronor last year. Victor Muller has no qualms in maintaining his 4.5 million kronor ($0.7 million) in bonus on top of his salary and other benefits. Overall, it means that he got a remuneration in 2010 worth around 14 million kronor ($2.2 million), according to Dagens Industri.

Of course Muller does not explain how they managed to stay within the business plan but ran out of cash. Or perhaps cash flow was not included in his business plan.


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Posted in Automobiles, Business, Ethics, Politics | 4 Comments »

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 »