Spyker Bankrupt

It's hard to build specialty cars, just a few weeks ago we learned that Saleen is on the edge of bankruptcy and now Spyker the quirky Dutch car maker declared bankruptcy on Thursday after failing to secure funding that would allow the company to restructure. The company has had a rocky history since its founding in 2000, a revival of the Dutch brand that was founded in 1898. The modern Spyker filed a voluntary petition on December 2, 2014 for financial restructuring in a last ditch effort to save the company.

In 2010 Spyker purchased Saab from General Motors for $74m in cash up front, payable to GM by July 2010, and shares in Spyker to the tune of US$320m. After unsuccessfully attempting to partner with and then sell Saab to Chinese companies Pang Da and Zhejiang Youngman Saab filed for bankruptcy in 2012, the brand was purchased by Chinese owned NEVS AB.

Earlier this year the US courts dismissed a 3 billion dollar lawsuit against GM, in which, Spyker accused GM of interfering with their plans to sell Saab to the Chinese.

Victor Muller, the company’s founder and CEO, said he plans on resurrecting the group and focusing on electric vehicles.


Official Press Release:


SPYKER COMPANIES DECLARED BANKRUPT

Zeewolde, the Netherlands, 18 December 2014. Today the District Court of Midden-Nederland, at the request of the administrator, converted the moratorium of payment, granted to Spyker N.V. and its wholly owned subsidiaries Spyker Automobielen B.V. and Spyker Events & Branding B.V. (collectively "Spyker" or the "Company") on December 2nd, last, to bankruptcy. The cause for this conversion was that the committed bridge funding did unfortunately not reach the company in time. The administrator will continue his work but now as receiver.

Victor R. Muller, Founder and Chief Executive Officer said: "None of the ambitions we had when we founded Spyker 15 years ago, has vanished as a result of today's events. In 2000 we set out to establish a super sports car business from scratch with a global distribution and we achieved that. Over the years we undertook some daring ventures that left their marks on the company which in turn contributed to today's demise.

However, I would like to make clear that as far as I am concerned "this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning" to quote Winston Churchill. I will relentlessly endeavour to resurrect Spyker as soon as practically possible and, assuming we will be successful, pursue our goal to merge with a high performance electric aircraft manufacturer and develop revolutionary electric Spykers with disruptive sustainable technology.

This is the moment to express my gratitude to our customers, dealers, suppliers and of course our employees and Board. Their loyalty and support was vital to build the brand over the past decade and a half. They can count on us continuing to live by the Spyker axiom "Nulla Tenaci Invia est Via" (Latin for "For the tenacious no road is impassible")."