Saab gets approval for voluntary reorganization on appeal

Saab has been granted the right to court protection whilst it restructures, overturning an earlier judgement by a District Court.

Victor Muller never says die, and the news that Saab has, after all, been granted the right to court protection from its creditors for a period of reorganisation has vindicated his stubborn refusal to give up on Saab.

The Court of Appeal in Gothenburg has this morning overturned an earlier judgement by the District Court in Vänersborg which rejected Saab’s application to get the court’s protection during a period of ‘reorganisation’, which you can read as ‘Waiting for the dosh to arrive from China’.

The news last week that Rachel Pang – a director of Pang Da, one of Saab’s putative investors – has come out in a very bullish way about the prospects for the investment by Pang Da and Youngman getting the final rubber stamp from China’s NDRC in Beijing won’t have harmed Saab’s case one bit.

But, even though we’ve thought it countless times in recent months, this stay of execution from the appeal court in Gothenburg really is Victor Muller’s last chance saloon. The court protection will last long enough for the Chinese to either receive – or be denied – permission to invest in Saab, so the future – or at least the near future – for Saab will be decided in the next month or so.

With great relief, Victor Muller will now request for the bankruptcy filings by unions IF Metall, Unionen and Ledarna to be cancelled. Which should now be a formality with Saab operating under court protection.

If Victor Muller now pulls-off the deal with the Chinese, it must count of one of the greatest feats of business escapology on record.