Spyker avoids more debt in final Saab payment

Dutch carmaker Spyker Cars used internal funding rather than external
debt to pay General Motors the final $24m purchase price for Sweden’s
Saab, ending concern over how it would foot the bill.

Niche
carmaker Spyker, which has never made a profit, took over the larger
Saab from GM earlier this year and is now working to revive the flagging
brand, but the final instalment of the purchase price had been due on
July 15.

Spyker Cars said it made the payment without increasing
its external debt or issuing new shares, adding the internal funding
became available after the acquisition of Saab Great Britain Limited by
Spyker on May 31.

A Spyker Cars spokesman said the company paid
the final instalment to GM using cash from Saab Great Britain.

“Saab
Great Britain is a wholly own subsidiary of Spyker Cars and has given
an inter company loan to Spyker,” spokesman Mike Stainton said.

Further concern had been sparked about the company’s ability to fund the
final part of the deal after it said in February it still needed to
secure financing for the $24m payment.

Spyker Cars had said it
intended to fund the payment primarily through senior debt and that it
had pledged assets to GM as security for the final payment.

“The
early payment of the second and last instalment underlines our desire
to finalise the transaction with GM as soon as it was possible, enabling
management to fully focus on the future of the group,” Spyker Cars
Chief Executive Victor Muller said in a statement.

Spyker spent
$400m buying the iconic Swedish brand Saab, $74m of which was paid in
cash for Saab, including $25m borrowed from a Muller investment vehicle
and $25m from an issue of shares, largely to GEM Global Yield Fund Ltd.