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SAAB

Profit boost for Saab

Swedish defence and aerospace company Saab has reported pre-tax profits of 357 million kronor for the third quarter. During the same period last year, profits were 345 milion.

Published: 20 October 2006 09:56 CEST

“Saab continues to do well. After three quarters, sales and income are well in line with our expectations,” said CEO Åke Svensson.

Turnover at the company rose from 4.025 billion kronor to 4.260 billion. The results were better than market expectations. Analysts had predicted turnover of 4.079 million, according to Reuters.

Operating margins of 8.7 percent for the third quarter were higher than the 7.8 percent reported for the second quarter. Orders worth 4.547 billion kronor were received during the period.

The company said that its results for the year would be dented by the 450 million kronor structural costs of incorporating Saab Microwave Systems, which the company took over from Ericsson earlier this year.

“We have finalized strategically important acquisitions that are now being integrated in Saab, and the order backlog is the highest ever,” said Svensson.

CARS

Former Swedish Saab bosses appear in court

Swedish car maker Saab's former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson and the firm's former head lawyer Kristina Geers have appeared in court in Vänersborg in west Sweden, accused of falsifying financial documents shortly before the company went bankrupt in 2011.

Published: 2 September 2015 14:46 CEST
Updated: 2 September 2015 16:26 CEST
Former Swedish Saab bosses appear in court
Saab's former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson. Photo: Karin Olander/TT
The pair are accused of falsifying the paperwork at the height of the Swedish company's financial difficulties at the start of the decade.
 
A third person – who has not been named in the Swedish media – is accused of assisting them by issuing false invoices adding up to a total of 30 million kronor ($3.55m).
 
According to court documents, the charges relate to the firm's business in Ukraine and the paperwork in question was signed just before former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson resigned.
 
Both Jonsson and Saab's former head lawyer Kristina Geers have admitted signing the papers but denied knowledge of the Ukranian firm implicated in the case.
 
All three suspects deny all the charges against them.
 

Saab's former head lawyer Kristina Geers. Photo:  Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT
 
Saab filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2011, after teetering on the edge of collapse for nearly two years.
 
Chief prosecutor Olof Sahlgren told the court in Vänersborg on Wednesday that the alleged crimes took place in March 2011, when Saab was briefly owned by the Dutch company Spyker Cars.
  
It was eventually bought by National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs), a Chinese-owned company after hundreds of staff lost their jobs.
 
The car maker, which is based in west Sweden, has struggled to resolve serious financial difficulties by attracting new investors since the takeover.
 
In October 2014 it announced it had axed 155 workers, close to a third of its workforce.
 
Since 2000, Saab automobile has had no connection with the defence and aeronautics firm with the same name. It only produces one model today, the electric 9-3 Aero Sedan, mainly targeting the Chinese market.