- SPYKER N.V. WINS APPEAL: BANKRUPTCY DECLARED NULL AND VOID WITH RETROSPECTIVE EFFECT
- BACK IN MORATORIUM OF PAYMENT, SPYKER EXPECTS TO REACH AN AGREEMENT WITH ITS CREDITORS AND EXIT MORATORIUM IN A MATTER OF WEEKS
Zeewolde, the Netherlands, January 29th, 2015.- Spyker N.V., together with its wholly owned subsidiary Spyker Automobielen B.V. (collectively “Spyker” or the “Company”), today won an appeal filed on December 29th, 2014 with the Appeals Court of Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.Pursuant to the ruling rendered today the decision of the District Court of Midden-Nederland in Lelystad, the Netherlands (the “Court”), declaring Spyker bankrupt on December 18th, 2014, was overturned and the bankruptcy declared null and void with retrospective effect.
This means that by law Spyker was never bankrupt and that the Company has, with immediate effect, returned to the moratorium of payment status, in which it was since the Court granted Spyker that protection on December 2nd, 2014. On that day, Spyker filed a voluntary petition for temporary moratorium of payment (“surseance van betaling”), the Dutch equivalent of the American Chapter 11 procedure, in an effort to address certain short-term operational and liquidity challenges. When expected bridge funding did not arrive timely, the Court appointed administrator who, together with the Board of Management, bears final responsibility for the management of the Company as long as the legal moratorium of payment status is in force, filed a request with the Court to convert the moratorium of payment to bankruptcy.
Fortunately, in the days following the bankruptcy ruling, the bridge funding did come in, which provided a solid foundation for lodging an appeal with the Appeals Court on December 29th,2014.
Victor R. Muller, Spyker’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer said: “On December 18th, last, perhaps the blackest day in our 15 year history, I announced that as far as I was concerned, this was not the end and we would live up to our commitment to relentlessly endeavour to resurrect Spyker as soon as practically possible.
But even I could not foresee at the time how quickly and unscathed Spyker would emerge from a situation which usually heralds the end of an era. The Appeals Court’s ruling has eradicated the bankruptcy and put Spyker back in “Chapter 11”. Since we spent the time between lodging the appeal and today’s ruling to reach an agreement with the majority of our creditors, we should see Spyker exit moratorium of payment in a matter of weeks.
Following that exit we will forthwith pursue the execution of our plans which include the introduction of the Spyker B6 Venator, our entry-level luxury sports car which will give a larger audience access to the Spyker brand, and the merger with a US based manufacturer of high performance electric aircraft, the exciting new sustainable and disruptive technologies of which will find their way into full electric Spyker cars in the foreseeable future.
I again wish to express my gratitude to our customers, dealers, suppliers and of course our shareholders, employees and Board. Their loyalty and support was vital to build the brand over the past decade and a half and has now proven invaluable to achieve the overturning of the bankruptcy ruling and subsequent exit from moratorium so we can continue building our business for many decades to come.”
Additional information about the restructuring is available at the Company’s website. For access to Court documents and other general information about the temporary legal moratorium, please visit http://spykercars.com/company/corporate-news
A temporary moratorium of payment under Dutch law is very similar to the American Chapter 11 procedure and allows a company to continue operating its business and managing its assets in the ordinary course of business. The temporary moratorium has been enacted to encourage and enable a company to continue to operate while restructuring its business, thereby preserving jobs and maximising the recovery for all its stakeholders.
Text and photograph by: Spyker
