CPP reacts to news of Spyker sale to North Street Capital

CPP has commented on the breaking news that Spyker has been sold to a North American Private Equity firm North Street Capital.

The rather surprising news breaking overnight that Victor Muller has done a deal with a North American Private Equity firm – North Street Capital – to buy Spyker was something of a surprise; we still expected the deal with CPP, backed by Muller’s banker Vladimir Antonov, to conclude in an orderly fashion.

So before we jumped in with a report we thought we ought to dig a bit and see what’s going on. But we’re still really none the wiser.

North Street Capital appears to be owned by US conglomerate General Foods, and is run by Alex Mascioli who is said to be a big petrolhead. We’ve tried to get hold of Alex Mascioli, but without any joy.

But we have got hold of Brendan O’Toole – CPP’s MD – who, judging by his response, seems as bemused as we are over the announcement.

So we thought we ought to give you Brendan’s statement in full, so you know as much as we do. Brendan said:

Although a February 2011 Memorandum of Understanding between CPP and Spyker’s owner, Swedish Automobile, lapsed in June 2011, we have remained patient and discussions have continued.  Until we are informed that that Swedish Automobile is no longer willing to discuss the Spyker sale, we are still keen to progress our proposed acquisition.

If Spyker is acquired by another entity, CPP will continue to offer its support in future engineering programmes, body and chassis production, and final trim and assembly of Spyker models.  CPP has unique knowledge and experience of the current model line-up, and its purpose-built assembly facility in Coventry is ready to immediately ‘switch on’ production of the new flagship Spyker C8 Aileron supercar.

All very odd, we must say. And we do wonder if this is a ploy by Victor Muller to bend Vladimir and CPP to his take on what the Spyker deal should be worth? After all, the €32 million sale price probably won’t even pay off Saab’s bill with their local butcher for meat balls for the Saab canteen.

There’s more to this than meets the eye.