The soap opera that has been the recent history of TVR has taken another turn. The administrators of PKF Partners have announced the sale TVR's asset's to none other Nikolai Smolenski, the previous owner who oversaw the failure of the company in the first place. The sale price hasn't been released, but is believed to be over £2 million.
Smolenski has signaled his intention to resume production of TVRs outside of England, probably in Italy with Bertone doing the assembly work. Al Melling, who had previously designed many of TVRs engines, was another bidder, but Smolenski offered more money and in the end, won back the quirky automaker.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Todd @ Feb 23rd 2007 10:27AM
Dang, I was hoping Melling would win.
Spectacular Bid @ Feb 23rd 2007 11:12AM
One does wonder if a little Russian "persuasion" wasn't applied to PKF Partners to give 'the kid' the nod. Clearly his record, including a lack of injecting substantive funds as promised, should disqualify him from taking the reins of the company again.
The reorganization sale is just one more perversion to this whole sad saga. I cannot imagine the dealer network in the UK, obviously their strongest market, will be all too happy with this outcome.
It wasn't too long ago that the perennial rumors of TVRs returning to America had some credibility with the supposed deep pockets post-Wheeler ownership. Now we are talking a mere 2 million quid for a brand name whose sports cars in the last 10 years have graced more [Euro] car magazine covers then anything by major players VW or Renault.
TVR: a perfect candidate for a Harvard MBA business case of "what not to do" with management decisions.
Bob-o @ Feb 23rd 2007 1:29PM
My suspicion is its 2 million quid, plus all the debt that TVR has incurred. Which could be a lot.
ebm14 @ Feb 23rd 2007 4:29PM
I wish that production remained in Blackpool, England. It was kind of cool to see this product arise from the same town that Chris Lowe from the Pet Shops is from. One performs excellent on keyboards/Sytherthisers and the other on the road, music and cars helps keep the world spinning beside money and sex.
ebm14 @ Feb 23rd 2007 4:29PM
See the keyboardist....the inventive one...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__5MQBQHfos&mode=related&search=