(Reuters) – Dutch carmaker Spyker Cars (SPYKR.AS) used internal funding rather than external debt to pay General Motors GM.UL the final $24 million 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 installment 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.
Spyker shares were up 0.43 percent at 2.311 euros at 3:13 a.m. ET, in line with a higher Amsterdam market.
A Spyker Cars spokesman said the company paid the final installment 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 $24 million 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 installment underlines our desire to finalize 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 $400 million buying the iconic Swedish brand Saab, $74 million of which was paid in cash for Saab, including $25 million borrowed from a Muller investment vehicle and $25 million from an issue of shares, largely to GEM Global Yield Fund Ltd.
(Editing by Simon Jessop)
Heineken acquires 30 percent of Globe’s debt – FT
LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) – Heineken NV (HEIN.AS), the world’s third-largest brewer, has acquired 30 percent of the senior debt in Globe Pub Company, the British pub operator owned by Robert Tchenguiz, the Financial Times newspaper said on Monday.
The Dutch company bought 60.2 million pounds ($89.34 million) of Globe’s Class A1 securitised debt at an undisclosed discount, the report said.
It is the first time Heineken has built an economic interest in a pub operator, the report added.
“It is an opportunistic purchase,” the paper quoted a Heineken spokesman as saying. “Heineken will receive interest payment on the bonds that it bought at a price much lower than their face value.”
No one at Globe or Heineken could be reached for comment.
Globe said earlier this month that it had defaulted on a 248 million pounds bond issue. The pub operator, which has more than 400 pubs across Britain, has been hit by the recession, the ban on smoking in public places and low supermarket alcohol prices. (Reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Valerie Lee)