Stick a fork in Caterham – staff locked out of Leafield factory (3rd Update)
10/23/14 Engavest Responds in this silly saga:
Engavest SA, strongly refutes the allegations of Tony Fernandes and Caterham Group CEO Graham Macdonald regarding its conduct while trying to purchase Caterham F1. Our statement of earlier today still stands.
Every single condition precedent of the Sales and Purchase Agreement for which Engavest was responsible has been met.
Only the seller, which includes Mr. Fernandes, failed to meet his obligations.
All salaries have been paid.
Engavest sold CSL. It did not appoint Mr. Cojocar who, we believe, was a former top footballer for Steaua Bucarest during the 1980s.
The claims of Mr. Fernandes and Mr. Macdonald contradict their own press statement dated 03 October 2014
“Caterham Group wishes to clarify that, following the sale of the F1 business in July, it has no affiliation with Caterham F1 Team".
That one sentence alone contains two errors:
1, the date was June 29
2, having failed to transfer the shares Caterham Group and Mr. Fernandes wholly owned Caterham F1 at the time of the statement, as they do today.
Incidents such as a Caterham Group representative forcibly breaking into a filing cabinet containing our private and confidential documents and the continued refusal to deal with the outstanding loan of Exim Bank and complete the agreement has culminated in Engavest’s total contempt of Mr. Fernandes and his Group executives with whom we entered a deal in good faith.
10/23/14
 |
| Tony Fernandes claims new owners never met their obligations |
The sorry saga of Caterham continues as Tony Fernandes and Caterham Group CEO, Graham Macdonald, issue a joint statement.
It reads:
Tony Fernandes, Caterham Group co-Chairman: "In June 2014, I decided, together with my co-shareholders, to sell my stake in the Caterham F1 team. We agreed in good faith to sell the shares to a Swiss company named 'Engavest' on the basis that Engavest undertook to pay all of the existing and future creditors, including the staff. The continued payment of staff and creditors was so important to me that I ensured that the shares would not be transferred to the new buyers unless they complied with this condition.
Sadly, Engavest has failed to comply with any of the conditions in the agreement and Caterham Sports Ltd (the UK operating company of the F1 team) has had to be put into administration by the bank, with large sums owing to numerous creditors. Our agreement with Engavest was very clear: there was no legal obligation to transfer the shares to them unless certain conditions – which included paying creditors – were met. Those conditions have not been met. Our lawyers have asked Engavest several times to comply with these conditions but they have failed to engage.
If you agree to buy a business, you must pay its bills. They have breached that promise and now, sadly, it is others such as the employees and the fans of the Caterham F1 team that will suffer if the team ceases to race. I sincerely hope that this will not be the case and that a solution can be found."
Graham Macdonald, Caterham Group CEO: "We genuinely believed, at the time, that the sale of the team was the best route for the staff and creditors of the Company, as we felt it secured its long term future. The whole agreement with Engavest was based around a low consideration for the business, with easy payment terms so that creditors and staff could be paid. The buyers were made fully aware at the time of all outstanding liabilities. However, it appears to me that they never had any intention of paying these liabilities. I go on to question how anyone who was interested in the long term future of the business would appoint one of their cleaners – Constantin Cojocar – as the sole director and shareholder of the UK operating Company?
We continue to see claims and counter claims from the F1 team which are totally unfounded. Not only have they failed to pay the creditors (and have even left our shareholders to pay some of the creditors on their behalf), but they have failed to pay us anything for use of our factory and site, or anything for the use our brand name. In short the new owners have paid us nothing and now the administrators have been appointed they want to walk away from their liabilities."
10/23/14 (GMM) Caterham's crisis went from bad to worse on Thursday, as team staff found themselves locked out of the Leafield factory.
"They can't get into the factory today," Finbarr O'Connell, the administrator now in charge of the facility on behalf a creditor, a Malaysian bank, told Reuters.
"They (the team) are using my facilities and haven't paid me," he added.
Inside the locked up factory are the green Caterham cars that will not make the weekend deadline to be shipped to Austin unless an urgent deal is struck.
Earlier, team boss Manfredi Ravetto confirmed he is no longer running Caterham, following a statement that said former owner Tony Fernandes is in fact responsible once again.
Fernandes, who sold the team to a group of investors earlier this year, called Caterham's explosive statement "rubbish".
O'Connell, meanwhile, suggested that while talks on Wednesday with the team's existing management have failed for now, he also cannot rule out another party stepping in.
"It's just a case of who has got the money to make it work," he said.
Quotes attributed to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone earlier suggested F1 would be "better" without Caterham, but he told the BBC on Thursday he is trying to help.
"We're trying to help in any way we can, which we do with anybody that has run into a bit of difficulty," he said.
"All I know is what I've been told. Not too sure it's all true either.
"I'd rather not lose the teams," Ecclestone added.