By Veronica Ek and Victoria Klesty
TROLLHATTEN, Sweden (Reuters) - Loss-making Nordic carmaker Saab's fight for survival moved up a gear on Friday as the General Motors unit won protection from creditors while it tries to find a new partner and raise fresh funds.
GM, itself facing mountainous debts and an uncertain future, refuses to continue funding Saab's losses. In a plan submitted to the U.S. Treasury this week, GM said the Swedish firm would become an independent business as of January 1, 2010.
Saab said it lost about 3 billion crowns ($340 million) in 2008, according to documents filed with the Swedish court that granted the company a stay of execution. It expects a similar loss this year, blaming slack demand, aging products, overcapacity and high costs.
The company -- which has been making cars in the industrial town of Trollhatten in the southwest of the country since 1949 -- is one of Sweden's best-known brands.
But it said it needed a rapid restructuring in order to address the level of near-term losses and new funding from either private or public sources to launch more competitive models, and that it had to find a new partner.
Saab Chief Executive Jan-Ake Jonsson told a news conference that making the company increasingly independent of its U.S. parent would help it find external financing.
"Even though we have not been actively searching for new partners, we have had many knocking on our door showing interest in Saab," he said.
"I am very confident and I think we have a solid basis for solving this financing issue."
STATE AID
Any restructuring would need the approval of Saab's creditors, who will meet on April 6.
In its court filing, Saab said GM has said it "would not fund further the projected losses," but would provide liquidity while the company restructures. It was not immediately clear whether GM would cover this year's projected loss.
Swedish daily Dagens Industri said on Friday that GM is prepared to pump in $400 million into Saab if the Swedish state guarantees a further loan of $590 million.
Many analysts believe such sums would be far too little to turn Saab around, and question whether the brand has a realistic future.
Sweden said late last year it would provide its vehicle industry with up to 25 billion crowns in aid to help it through the global economic crisis, mainly in the shape of loan guarantees. Jonsson said Saab expected to be given access to the state funds.
"We are waiting for a reply from the government," he said.
The government said this week its talks with GM over state aid for Saab lacked a realistic basis, but a senior Swedish official told Reuters on Friday the state had not closed the door to providing loan guarantees to the carmaker.
"That will depend on what the plans look like," said Joran Hagglund, state secretary at the Swedish Industry Ministry.
"If you provide loan guarantees to someone, you must be sure the company has a future."
Saab and rival car firm Volvo have helped shape Sweden's image abroad with their focus on safety, family motoring and high engineering standards.
However, the current economic crisis has plunged the auto industry worldwide into crisis, adding to problems for carmakers in countries with high production costs such as Sweden.
Volvo Cars has been put up for sale by owner Ford Motor Co.. Saab and Volvo employ more than 20,000 people in Sweden with thousands more jobs at suppliers tied to the two companies.
"People definitely view this as a better option than a bankruptcy," Saab worker Mats Roos said.
"If you ask those who are inside right now, in the factory, they have a positive view on this."
But shares in Swedish auto industry suppliers fell sharply amid concerns about fallout from Saab's woes. Autoliv, the world's biggest seat belt and airbag maker, fell nearly 6 percent.
Bearing firm SKF was down 3.3 percent. SKF said it had minimal exposure to Saab. "But even if the firm is a small client, it is a valuable client and even small volumes are important," SKF spokesman Ingalill Ostman said.
(Additional reporting by Johan Ahlander, Love Liman, Veronica Ek, Niklas Pollard; writing by Simon Johnson; Editing by Simon Jessop, John Stonestreet)
