Saab Automobile AB has enough money to keep operating for several more weeks, and it is counting on the funds lasting until a new owner takes the reins from General Motors Corp. (GM), a spokesman for the Swedish car maker said Tuesday.

Saab will not receive any more money from GM since the U.S. automaker filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, Gunilla Gustavs said. The ailing Swedish unit is able to stay afloat for now due to the $150 million that it received from GM in February to help it keep going through the reconstruction period. As of mid-May, Saab had about $90 million of these funds left, she said.

"We will have enough to pay salaries and suppliers, to keep operations going until we get out of reconstruction," she said.

She said GM's bankruptcy is unlikely to derail Saab's effort to find a buyer, and reiterated Saab's stance over the last couple of months that it should be able to announce a new owner by "early summer."

Swedish media have speculated that GM going bankrupt threatens Saab's sale process since it will now be up to the U.S. court overseeing GM's bankruptcy to decide how to treat the almost 10 billion Swedish kronor ($1.34 billion) that Saab owes its parent company.

GM has approved Saab's proposed accord that would have the Swedish car maker settle debts with all creditors by paying 25% of what is owed, and Gustavs said it would only make sense for the U.S. court to go along with that.

"The money (that Saab owes GM) isn't there, so if the court were to demand that, they wouldn't receive it and the only thing they would accomplish is to put Saab into bankruptcy," she said. "That would be pointless. It's financially better for GM to sell Saab than to demand something they can't get."

On Monday, Saab Chief Executive Jan-Ake Jonsson appeared in a video clip that Saab posted on Web site Youtube.com in which he said that "we're making good progress" on finding a new owner and that the company hoped to "sign an agreement by the end of June."

 
   Company Web site: www.saab.com 
 
   -By Ola Kinnander, Dow Jones Newswires; +46-8-5451-3097; ola.kinnander@dowjones.com