FT Article in full:14 Sep 2022 15:36
Aston Martin is facing a lawsuit from two former dealers who claim they are owed about £150mn for underwriting the development of its troubled Valkyrie hypercar.
The luxury car maker revealed that Nebula Project AG — a Swiss company owned by Andreas Baenziger and Florian Kamelger — had filed a case against Aston in London.
Details are not public because it is private arbitration but the case centres on a deal to underwrite the development of the £2.5mn Valkyrie hypercar, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
When the carmaker began developing the Valkyrie in 2016 it turned to Baenziger and Kamelger, who ran an Aston dealership in Switzerland and dealt with many of the company’s top-end clients, to underwrite the project.
The project covered the Valkyrie, the slightly cheaper Valhalla supercar, and a third model.
They were guaranteed royalty payments of about 3 per cent, worth about £150mn, once the cars were on sale, according to three people with knowledge of the arrangement at the time.
However, last year Aston claimed the pair had withheld Valkyrie customer deposits from the company, and sued them to recoup the £15mn it said it was owed. At the same time, it cancelled the contract.
Aston confirmed the existence of the London case by Nebula in its prospectus for its £576mn rights issue, published last week, but did not include the details.
In the prospectus, it stated the suit from Nebula was “retaliatory and without merit”.
It said: “The arbitration proceedings are at an early stage but the group is of the view that it can defend the claims brought by Nebula Project AG and assert valid counterclaims in the arbitration. At this stage it is not possible to assess the group’s potential total overall exposure.”
In the prospectus, Aston said it brought “civil legal proceedings against Nebula Project AG and criminal proceedings against its board members?.?.?.?following the failure to pay some customer deposits for Aston Martin Valkyrie programme orders received by Nebula Project AG to the group.”
It also stated that “there is a dispute between the group and the other shareholders of one of its subsidiary entities, which is ongoing and from which a future obligation may arise”.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, Aston chair Lawrence Stroll said: “Last year Aston Martin filed civil legal proceedings against Nebula Project AG, and criminal proceedings against its board members, after we became aware that Nebula had failed to pay what the company believes to be millions of pounds of deposits taken from our Valkyrie programme customers.
“Aston Martin is working with our affected customers to ensure they receive delivery of their vehicles. We are confident in our legal position and believe their counterclaims are retaliatory and without merit.”
Nebula declined to comment, citing confidentiality.
A liability, whether of £150mn or of a lower amount, would be a significant outlay for the company th
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