Saab secures 25 mn euro loan

Saab's owner Swedish Automobile said Wednesday it had secured more short-term funding with a 25-million-euro ($36-million) loan and that it has paid its staff's salaries for June. "Swedish Automobile announces that it entered into a 25 million euro convertible bridge loan agreement with Gemini Investment Fund Limited, thereby securing additional short-term funding," it said in a statement. The announcement is the third cash injection to Saab this week, for a total of 66 million euros, following a Chinese order on Monday and a deal reached Tuesday to sell and lease back its real estate. If the funds are paid out as scheduled, "Saab Automobile expects to have secured the liquidity required to restart production hopefully within 2 weeks, subject to reaching agreement with its suppliers which includes feasible delivery schedules," said the brand's Dutch owner, formerly known as Spyker. The announcement sent Swedish Automobile's shares soaring 44 percent to 1.76 euros on the Amsterdam stock exchange at 1430 GMT. Saab has been faced with a mounting liquidity crisis, with the production line stopped as suppliers halted deliveries over unpaid bills. Last week, it announced it had run out of cash to pay its staff's salary for the month of June. "I am relieved to report that we made the June salary payments this afternoon from the proceeds of the sale of cars we announced Monday," Swedish Automobile head Victor Muller, who is also Saab's sole board member, said Tuesday, apologising to employees. "We have clearly gone through a very rough patch in the past few weeks and hopefully we can now reach agreement with our suppliers so as to ensure a resumption of our production in a controlled way," he said.