Recently our new book Saab goes bust. Victor Muller's defeat was published. Below you can read a short summary with the introduction of the book as special encore.
Victor Muller acquires Saab at the beginning of 2010 through his small sports car manufacturer Spyker. He proves to be the ultimate dealmaker, smartly bringing the different pieces of the puzzle together. Saab's employees welcome him as a true hero. One year on, however, there is little left to celebrate. The challenges involved in relaunching production at the car factory are underestimated. As a result, too few Saabs are rolling off the production line for sale. This quickly leads to an acute shortage of funds. Suppliers are paid late, employees have to wait for their wages and car production grinds to a halt. This is the beginning of a death struggle lasting several months for the illustrious Swedish brand, one that is characterised by conflicts of interests and culminates in mutual mistrust. In the end Muller has no option but to file for Saab's bankruptcy. This is a heavy defeat for the flamboyant entrepreneur who has adopted Spyker's motto Nulla tenaci invia est via (For the tenacious no road is impassable) for himself. Muller, a true survivor, is back to square one and is forced to continue with Spyker.
Victor Muller acquires Saab at the beginning of 2010 through his small sports car manufacturer Spyker. He proves to be the ultimate dealmaker, smartly bringing the different pieces of the puzzle together. Saab's employees welcome him as a true hero. One year on, however, there is little left to celebrate. The challenges involved in relaunching production at the car factory are underestimated. As a result, too few Saabs are rolling off the production line for sale. This quickly leads to an acute shortage of funds. Suppliers are paid late, employees have to wait for their wages and car production grinds to a halt. This is the beginning of a death struggle lasting several months for the illustrious Swedish brand, one that is characterised by conflicts of interests and culminates in mutual mistrust. In the end Muller has no option but to file for Saab's bankruptcy. This is a heavy defeat for the flamboyant entrepreneur who has adopted Spyker's motto Nulla tenaci invia est via (For the tenacious no road is impassable) for himself. Muller, a true survivor, is back to square one and is forced to continue with Spyker.
Robert van den Oever (1972), reporter for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, and Maarten van der Pas (1972), financial markets editor at Morningstar, have been following the progress of Spyker and Victor Muller for a number of years. In 2009 they published Spyker. Een dollemansrit (Spyker. A Crazy Ride), which focused on the turbulent initial years for the Dutch sports car manufacturer and its remarkable founder. Besides working as financial journalists, the authors are also car enthusiasts. They write together about cars and motor sport for publications including FD Persoonlijk and autoblog.nl.
Saab goes bust is published in Dutch by Nieuw Amsterdam, telephone 0031 20 5706 100, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, www.nieuwamsterdam.nl.
Introduction
‘We have been following Spyker since the company was re-established in 2000, and the ups and downs over the past nine years lead us to the opinion that something really needs to happen in 2009. If the company is unable to stand on its own two feet now with the help of the new models, the end seems inevitable.’
This was the conclusion we
reached in August 2009 in the foreword to our book Spyker. Een dollemansrit
(Spyker. A Crazy Ride). In this book we reconstructed the exciting journey
that Spyker had been on since its foundation in 2000. The sports car
manufacturer had an unsuccessful venture behind it, having established its own
Formula 1 racing team. Spyker's top man Victor Muller found another new backer
in the form of young Russian banker Vladimir Antonov, who pumped tens of
millions of euros into the company and kept Spyker going. Our view was that
Spyker needed to demonstrate its viability and profitability on its own. We
could not have anticipated that shortly afterwards Spyker would start taking
steps to acquire Saab.
It was typical Victor Muller, we concluded, when the small Dutch sports car manufacturer absorbed the considerably larger Swedish automaker. Entrepreneur Muller has adopted Spyker's motto ‘Nulla tenaci invia est via’ for himself: For the tenacious no road is impassable. Muller is a dealmaker through and through. He is able to analyse situations and bring things together effectively, he sees opportunities where others do not and he perseveres when many would have given up long before. This made it possible for him to acquire Saab under difficult circumstances.
It was typical Victor Muller, we concluded, when the small Dutch sports car manufacturer absorbed the considerably larger Swedish automaker. Entrepreneur Muller has adopted Spyker's motto ‘Nulla tenaci invia est via’ for himself: For the tenacious no road is impassable. Muller is a dealmaker through and through. He is able to analyse situations and bring things together effectively, he sees opportunities where others do not and he perseveres when many would have given up long before. This made it possible for him to acquire Saab under difficult circumstances.
We were curious about the
feasibility of the plans to get Saab back on its feet. After all, Spyker had
not yet turned a profit once in its ten-year history. Moreover, Saab's glory
days, when more than a hundred thousand cars a year were rolling out of the
factory, were well behind it. Acquiring Saab was one thing - transforming it
into a healthy automaker was another. That would require a great deal of time
and money, things that Spyker did not have.
These are considerations that
we have also discussed elsewhere. Since Dollemansrit was published we
have regularly been asked by the Dutch and Swedish media to explain the
developments at Spyker and Saab.
The drama that unfolds at Saab in 2010 and 2011, which sees great plans for the company quickly fade into an acute shortage of funds and a search for wealthy backers to rescue the company, gives us a frequent sense of déjà vu. We are familiar with Spyker's history and can therefore see striking parallels between the acquisition of Saab and that of the Midland Formula 1 team in 2006: it is the same kind of venture. There is a significant gap between expectations and assumptions on the one hand and stubborn reality on the other. The way in which Muller tries to save the situation when it is getting out of hand looks familiar. His charisma, conviction, ability to act vigorously and inability to deal with criticism are traits that we see regularly.
Victor Muller is a true
survivor. Whenever the existence of Spyker, and subsequently Saab, is hanging
by a thread, he comes up with another solution. That is both his strength and
his weakness. He is an opportunistic businessman who grabs opportunities with
both hands. Problems are only solved as and when they present themselves. If
the financing of a deal has not yet been completed, he only thinks about where
money will come from when it becomes absolutely necessary. Muller argues that
there is always a solution, and often this comes from an unexpected source. At
Saab he seems set to pull it off again, but ultimately suffers a defeat.
Muller has to go to extreme
lengths, as he is involved with Spyker and Saab not only as a car enthusiast
but, above all, as an investor. Over the years he has invested millions of
euros of private capital into Spyker, a listed company. His aim is to develop
the car factory and the brand, increase their value and then withdraw at the
right moment and take his profit. That moment has never arrived, however. His
capital is tied up in Spyker. Saab was supposed to contribute to the value creation
that he hoped to achieve with Spyker, but instead Saab's bankruptcy resulted in
Muller losing millions. Carrying on with Spyker is the only option if he is to
avoid losing everything.
The leading role in this book
is reserved for Victor Muller, with Vladimir Antonov playing an important
supporting role. He comes up with the idea of acquiring Saab, but the banker
and investor seems unable to disassociate himself from insinuations of money
laundering and criminal ties. He even has to abandon his relationship with
Spyker to allow the acquisition of Saab to succeed. When he tries to get
involved with Saab at a later stage, he is categorically rebuffed.
More minor roles are reserved
for Jan Åke Jonsson, Saab's modest top man who leaves the scene battle-weary,
for administrator Guy Lofalk, and for Chinese self-made businessmen Pang
Qinghua and Pang Qingnian, who emerge as rescuers of Saab.
In this book we reconstruct how Spyker was able to acquire Saab and why the Swedish car brand went bankrupt within two years. We devote most attention to the failed attempt to rescue Saab, although the preceding step is certainly just as interesting: how could Saab get into difficulties so soon after the acquisition? In our opinion, simply saying ‘I told you so’ when the company went bankrupt is too easy. We look into whether the acquisition had any chance of succeeding at all.
In this book we reconstruct how Spyker was able to acquire Saab and why the Swedish car brand went bankrupt within two years. We devote most attention to the failed attempt to rescue Saab, although the preceding step is certainly just as interesting: how could Saab get into difficulties so soon after the acquisition? In our opinion, simply saying ‘I told you so’ when the company went bankrupt is too easy. We look into whether the acquisition had any chance of succeeding at all.
Victor Muller and Spyker are
the thread running through this book. We are not Saab enthusiasts, but we find
Spyker's history to be a fascinating story. Victor Muller is a phenomenon, an
entrepreneur with no shortage of nerve. His sports car brand is a string of
promises, unfulfilled expectations, criticism, admiration, failure to
appreciate, and hope. Spyker is all about emotion.
So too is Saab, but more for
the Swedes than the Dutch. Saab is as Swedish as Ikea and Abba. It is notable
that Saab's rescue became a national issue, even though, with 3,500 employees,
the company is relatively small. Volvo is a much bigger Swedish car brand, but
there is much less emotional attachment to it. ‘Saab is Saab, and Volvo is,
well, just a car,’ is how one of our sources aptly puts it.
The Netherlands is a real Saab
country. Take a look around you on the motorway and you will see plenty of
Saabs - recent models, but also a good number of classics. The Saab 900
convertible achieved cult status in our country during the eighties and
nineties. This was the car to drive if you had made it in business, but also if
you were an intellectual, a lawyer, a doctor or an arty type. It was said that
a Saab was a car in a class of its own, for people in a class of their own. You
drove a Saab if you wanted to set yourself apart. Purists draw a distinct line
at the point when Saab was acquired by General Motors (GM). From that moment on
enthusiasts saw the brand lose more and more of its unique characteristics.
Saab was no longer Saab. Victor Muller wanted to give Saab back its DNA, but
did not have the time to do so.
We did not speak to the central figure in the story for our book. When we approached him, Muller initially seemed to offer us an opening. He e-mailed in June to say that he was not yet ready to talk about Saab, but suggested contacting him another time when we were further on with our research to look at the situation again. We phoned him in August. Muller said that he could not see any benefit in collaborating: ‘I won't have any influence over the content anyway.’ He told us he was busy carrying out his own research and said that there were still plenty of details to emerge. ‘If there's going to be a book, I'll write it myself.’ The fact that Saab's bankruptcy is now before the courts in a case that Spyker has brought against GM may also have played a role in Muller's decision not to talk to us.
On previous occasions Muller
explained that he had received various offers to write a book, but had decided
not to as it was too time consuming and he had no wish to relive the two years
he had spent with Saab. ‘It was hell.’
Spyker and its founder Victor Muller are back to square one. In Pang Qingnian from Chinese bus and car manufacturer Youngman, Muller has once again found an investor who is making the necessary funds available to keep the company afloat for a few years at least. Muller has already outlined the initial prospects for the company and its future profit.
Spyker and its founder Victor Muller are back to square one. In Pang Qingnian from Chinese bus and car manufacturer Youngman, Muller has once again found an investor who is making the necessary funds available to keep the company afloat for a few years at least. Muller has already outlined the initial prospects for the company and its future profit.
We can now more or
less repeat what we said in our previous book: if over the coming years Spyker
does not manage to stand on its own two feet with the new C8 Aileron and D8
Peking-to-Paris models, the end is inevitable. However, perhaps Victor Muller
will once again come up with a venture that will allow his beloved Spyker to
grow into what he wants it to be.
