Saab's factory could soon be running again - or so the automaker now hopes.

The cash-starved Swedish automaker Saab continues lining up funding that it hopes will permit it to pay off mounting debts and re-start its idled assembly plant.

A day after revealing that an unnamed Chinese company will acquire $18.4 million worth of Saab vehicles, the maker says it has a tentative leaseback deal in place to sell a majority stake in its Saab Automobile Property unit, which owns the Trollhattan plant and additional assets.  The deal, worth an estimated $40 million, could help Saab not only meet the payroll it missed last week but also cover unpaid bills claimed by its parts suppliers.

Those vendors have been boycotting Saab since March, compounding the company’s already severe financial problems.

The latest deal would transfer a 50.1% stake in Saab Automobile Property to the Swedish real estate company, Hemfosa.  Saab’s parent, Swedish Automobile, would then sign a 15-year agreement to lease the Trollhattan plant and other facilities.  Hemfosa will also have the right to increase its stake in the property company by buying $7 million worth of shares.

But Saab must first win approval from the Swedish National Debt Office, the Swedish government and the European Investment Bank.  The EIB could be a sticking point.  It previously failed to approve an earlier leaseback deal that would have paired Saab with Vladimir Antonov, a Russian businessman and banker – and a one-time partner of Saab Chairman and CEO Victor Muller.

But the Swedish government has already given tentative approval, with an official from the Debt Office calling the proposal “highly prioritized.”

Barring another setback, Saab hopes to use the $40 million from the leaseback and the $18 million from the vehicle sale to cover its debts.  “Our next step will be to reach an agreement with our suppliers so that we can get our material and resume production,” said spokeswoman Gunilla Gustavs.

Swedish Automobile – then known as Spyker Cars – acquired Saab in early 2010, just before former parent General Motors liquidated the long-troubled company.  But by the time the last-minute sale was completed, Saab’s assembly line was shut down and it took the new owners seven weeks to restart operations, leading to a sizable shortfall in sales for the year.

The cash crunch worsened over the winter and in March, a key supplier decided to boycott Saab, dozens of others quickly following suit.  The Trollhattan plant has operated for barely a week since then, parts manufacturers saying they will end their boycott only when they are paid for past deliveries and given favorable terms for the future.

Saab has tried to resolve matters by lining up a series of alliances, starting with the one proposed by Russia’s Antonov.  When that deal was allowed to wither, CEO Muller announced a partnership with the Chinese automaker Hawtai.  But China’s bureaucrats declined to authorize that venture, sending Muller scrambling for yet another option.

Last month, he revealed a partnership with China’s largest auto dealership chain, Pang Da.  Then, this month, automaker Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. stepped into the picture.  After revising the proposal with Pang Da, Swedish Automobile now plans to sell the two Chinese companies a majority stake.

But that three-part alliance is still wending its way through the approval process, which meant Saab had to find another, more immediate way to raise cash to get its plant running again.

Last week, Saab sent its Trollhattan workforce home – unpaid – advising employees not to report back until July 4.