The bankruptcy sale of Erik Buell Racing has fallen through.
EBR was sold at auction last August after declaring bankruptcy in the spring. The manufacturer shut down in the middle of operations and was billed as a “turn key” purchase — all the buyer had to do was turn the lights back on and call employees back to work, and they were in business, so to speak.
But that’s not what buyer Atlantic Metals Group (helmed by Bruce Belfer) found. Apparently, Hero Motors (who owned almost half of EBR) had the rights to quite a sizable chunk of the company’s assets. Because it was unclear how much of EBR would actually go to the buyer, Belfer was unable to secure the credit necessary for the sale, says the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. You can read more about the sale’s ins and outs there.
While some rumours have been swirling saying Hero stripped the company clean of valuable assets, that wasn’t exactly the case for this situation; they had the potential to, so Belfer wasn’t able to line up the money in time.
As a result, the company will once again go up for auction in December. It sounds as if Belfer is interested in bidding again, but he may face more opposition this time around.
Are there any 1190 Ulysses prototypes sitting around? I want one!
Send everything out for recycling . . . .
Nice
The never ending story of Buell. What’s next.
Up Next on TLC…
Some plucky American businessmen put their money where their passion is and vow to return EBR to production. Watch as they burn through investment; learn how difficult vehicle engineering actually is; and finally meltdown when they discover the market hasn’t changed.
That sums it up nicely Michael. I would watch! As long as it wasn’t as bad as the BMW racing reality show ‘commercial’ that used to air on RADX TV.