Remember the rather depressing story in mid-December 2014, when Spyker->ke84 announced that it was officially bankrupt? Well, as it happens, it was all pretty much a bad dream, as the Dutch sports car->ke506 maker announced today that it has won an appeal in which the bankruptcy was not only overturned but declared null and void. In other words, by law Spyker was never bankrupt in the first place, as odd as that may seem, and has now returned to moratorium of payment status.
As a matter of fact, the company was in a similar protection status since December 2nd, 2014, in the the Dutch equivalent of the American Chapter 11 procedure. While expected bridge funding didn't arrive in time to keep Spyker out of the bankruptcy it entered just weeks after the moratorium of payment status commenced, it did eventually come in to provide a better foundation for lodging an appeal with the Appeals Court, which Spyker actually did at the end of December 2014.
"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." said Victor R. Muller, Spyker's Founder and CEO.
Click past the jump to read more about Spyker's bankruptcy.
Why it matters
According to Muller, Spyker will now continue to pursue both the introduction of the B6 Venator, and a merger with an American manufacturer of high-performance electric aircraft. Apparently, the merger with the unnamed aircraft company will allow future Spyker cars to benefit from full electric powerplants "in the foreseeable future," transforming the rather old-school sports-car maker into a rival of Tesla Motors in a few years. Whether Victor Muller is too much of an optimist or Spyker will finally leave all the dark days behind remains to be seen. Either way, 2015 is looking to be a tough year for the Dutch company, and I really hope that it will get through its predicament in the end, even without support from a larger business entity.