TVR could change hands again
Photo credit: EVOJust as British sports car builder TVR is poised to unveil its new 200mph Typhoon supercar at the Geneva motor show comes news that 26 year old Nikolai Smolensky may be relinquishing ownership of the company. According to a report published by Autocar editor-in-chief Steve Cropley, TVR could be changing hands again in less than two weeks.
Since the company was bought in 2004 by the son of Russian billionaire Alexander Smolensky, it has promptly gone downhill; hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate and eventually being forced to close the Blackpool-based factory – where it had been manufacturing TVRs since the company’s inception. Coventry-based TVR Power, which built engines for the cars, was also subject to a management buyout at the end of last year.
Cropley writes: "The administrator of Blackpool Automotive, the company created last year by Smolenski to contain TVR's Blackpool assets, will announce the successful new owner on February 23, from a field of around half a dozen serious bidders, all of whom were required to provide proof of £2 million funding to be considered. It is possible, though observers say increasingly unlikely, that Smolenski will bid again for the company.
“Another prominent bidder is the Rochdale millionaire and engine designer Al Melling, already in the news after recently showing a full-size concept model of his own-brand super-performance sports car, the £185,000 Melling Hellcat, powered by a 1200 bhp, quad-turbo V10 engine of 6.3 litres. Melling designed TVR V8 and in-line six-cylinder engines, and has already hot-housed plans to revive the company, which would continue to be based in Blackpool.”
CAR magazine confirms that more than 30 bidders have expressed interest in purchasing the ailing company, including the afore-mentioned Al Melling and some unnamed Asian investors.
Sources: Autocar, CAR magazine
Since the company was bought in 2004 by the son of Russian billionaire Alexander Smolensky, it has promptly gone downhill; hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate and eventually being forced to close the Blackpool-based factory – where it had been manufacturing TVRs since the company’s inception. Coventry-based TVR Power, which built engines for the cars, was also subject to a management buyout at the end of last year.
Cropley writes: "The administrator of Blackpool Automotive, the company created last year by Smolenski to contain TVR's Blackpool assets, will announce the successful new owner on February 23, from a field of around half a dozen serious bidders, all of whom were required to provide proof of £2 million funding to be considered. It is possible, though observers say increasingly unlikely, that Smolenski will bid again for the company.
“Another prominent bidder is the Rochdale millionaire and engine designer Al Melling, already in the news after recently showing a full-size concept model of his own-brand super-performance sports car, the £185,000 Melling Hellcat, powered by a 1200 bhp, quad-turbo V10 engine of 6.3 litres. Melling designed TVR V8 and in-line six-cylinder engines, and has already hot-housed plans to revive the company, which would continue to be based in Blackpool.”
CAR magazine confirms that more than 30 bidders have expressed interest in purchasing the ailing company, including the afore-mentioned Al Melling and some unnamed Asian investors.
Sources: Autocar, CAR magazine
posted by Eric at 4:18 PM
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