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Spyker posts first-half losses of $177 million, trims Saab target

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Old 08-27-10, 08:17 AM
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Post Spyker posts first-half losses of $177 million, trims Saab target

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...308279977/1265


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- Spyker Cars NV, the money-losing Dutch sports car maker that acquired Saab from General Motors Co. earlier this year, said today it posted a first-half loss of $177 million while it trimmed Saab's sales targets and said it would lose money through next year.

The company acknowledged it may have been too optimistic on Saab's earlier targets but Spyker CEO Victor Muller said the company had sufficient liquidity and would not have to recapitalize despite reporting negative shareholders' equity.

Spyker, a loss-making manufacturer that produces a handful of high-end sports cars annually, stunned markets when it launched its bid for Saab. While it pulled off the deal, its complicated financing has raised questions about whether it can sustain itself while it turns the Swedish brand around.

The company said today it had net cash of 280 million euros ($356 million) and undrawn facilities of 266 million euros from a European Investment Bank loan. Together, Muller said that would carry the company through to its 2012 profitability target.

For the first half of the year, Spyker said it posted a loss of 139.1 million euros ($177.2 million) on sales of 243.1 million euros. The company did not provide year-earlier comparisons.

In a statement, the company said: "Given the effective shut down in Saab's operations during the first months of 2010, the first half year cannot be seen as representative in terms of volumes and operating results, but as a necessary episode from which Saab will build going forward."

Spyker said its near-term sales goal for Saab is 45,000 units this year. For 2011 it forecast sales of 80,000 units and it kept a long-term goal for sales of 120,000 cars per y
ear.

Saab CEO Jan Ake Jonsson said last month he was confident it could reach a goal of selling 45,000 to 50,000 cars this year.

"Maybe we were a little bit optimistic" about the high end of the range, Jonsson told reporters, adding that Saab's restart when it came out of liquidation took longer than expected.

Jonsson added he is optimistic about the newly launched Saab 9-5, which is just now arriving in the United States and ramping up in Europe after the summer holidays. He said it would take about a month to get a sense of how the car is performing.

The loss was published two days after the group said its debts had become larger than its assets.

Muller said the issue was purely an accounting one, having to do with the way certain items are classified under international rules as opposed to Swedish accounting standards. He also said Spyker is still pursuing a second share listing in Stockholm, though it could eventually consider de-listing from Amsterdam as well.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...#ixzz0xot1mM3b
 
Old 08-27-10, 09:33 AM
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In a statement, the company said: "Given the effective shut down in Saab's operations during the first months of 2010, the first half year cannot be seen as representative in terms of volumes and operating results, but as a necessary episode from which Saab will build going forward."
I agree. The 177M loss is probably a somewhat bogus figure that (likey) represents some of the extra expenses associated in the first six months of the takeover.....retooling, attorney fees, new-product-planning, ad campaigns, corporate-insurance, etc.....

As time goes by, the financial status of the new company will probably get more stable, and, of course, if the new Saab 9-5 sells in adequate numbers at 50K apiece (we're doing a separate CAR CHAT thread on that right now), that will help even more.

As of now, in addition to the new 9-5, a new 9-3, all-new 9-4, and possibly a 9-1 are also planned. We'll have to wait and see how much the money situation allows that.
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Old 08-27-10, 10:17 AM
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Hard to do any P/L analysis with such little detail, regardless multimillion dollar losses are real even if somewhat overstating loss on operations.
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Old 08-27-10, 12:40 PM
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Originally Posted by IS-SV
Hard to do any P/L analysis with such little detail, regardless multimillion dollar losses are real even if somewhat overstating loss on operations.

True, but there are often extra initial expenses accociated with company/product takeovers that are not incurred later. That's just the nature of buisness and capitalism.
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Old 08-27-10, 12:59 PM
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Originally Posted by mmarshall
True, but there are often extra initial expenses accociated with company/product takeovers that are not incurred later. That's just the nature of buisness and capitalism.
The expenses you are talking about are specifically legal, investment banking, audit-related expenses (not just generalizations about nature of business and capitalism).

Yes, but those are not operating losses. Regardless they also had big operating losses as they have done in recent years.
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