Spyker Says Saab Production Fully Operational as Loss Widens
Spyker CEO Victor Muller
Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg
Spyker CEO Victor Muller said today that the equity position is likely to improve with the completion of a re-assessment of Spyker’s Saab assets, so far valued at their $74 million purchase price.
Spyker CEO Victor Muller said today that the equity position is likely to improve with the completion of a re-assessment of Spyker’s Saab assets, so far valued at their $74 million purchase price. Photographer: Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg
Spyker Cars NV, the Dutch supercar manufacturer that bought Saab Automobile this year, said production is fully operational as the first-half loss widened with the takeover of the unprofitable Swedish brand.
Spyker fell the most in three months in Amsterdam trading after reporting a net loss of 140.2 million euros ($178 million) compared with an 8.72 million-euro loss a year earlier. Sales jumped to 243.1 million euros from 4.12 million euros after including revenue from Saab, Zeewolde, Netherlands-based Spyker said today in a statement.
Saab, on the brink of collapse until Spyker bought the Trollhaettan-based carmaker from General Motors Co., resumed manufacturing in March after a seven-week standstill. The brand introduced the 9-5 sedan in May and set up a new dealer network that Spyker said today covers 50 countries.
“In just a few months, we have delivered several critical operational milestones,” Saab Chief Executive Officer Jan Ake Jonsson said in the statement.
Spyker dropped as much as 10 percent to 2.15 euros, the biggest decline since May 25, and was down 6.1 percent as of 9:31 a.m. in Amsterdam. That pared the stock’s gain this year to 7.9 percent, valuing the carmaker at 45.7 million euros.
Shareholder equity was a negative 126 million euros as of June 30 as debts outstripped assets because preferred stock, which Spyker provided to GM in the Saab purchase, was treated as a liability under international financial reporting standards, Spyker said. The company bought Saab in February with $326 million in preferred shares and $74 million in cash.
The Dutch company wants to list its stock on the Stockholm exchange by the end of the year and eventually drop its Euronext listing, Spyker CEO Victor Muller said on Aug. 12.
The equity position is likely to improve with the completion of a re-assessment of Spyker’s Saab assets, so far valued at their $74 million purchase price, Muller said today on a conference call with reporters.
Spyker said today it had 280 million euros in cash and an undrawn credit facility of 266 million euros with the European Investment Bank, for total liquidity of 546 million euros as of the end of June.
To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Frost in Paris at lfrost4@bloomberg.net.
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