Group Lotus plc NOT facing liquidation, or so they say
03/18/13 Group Lotus pls has now issued the following statement:
“Contrary to rumors initiated by Autocar, Lotus is not being liquidated.
“Earlier this year, Lotus was in a contractual dispute which was resolved amicably a number of weeks ago. However the High Court process meant that the matter was still shown on the High Court website, as there was a hearing scheduled for today. This is what appears to have been seen and misunderstood. The case was only listed for the proceedings to be disposed of.
“The claim has now been dismissed with no order as to costs."
03/18/13 Group Lotus plc is facing a ‘wind up’ application in front of the HM Courts and Tribunals Service today, but is in no danger of actually being liquidated, MSN Cars is told.
The proceedings stem from an action brought by a supplier over an issue that has already been settled. However, once started, such court processes can only be completed by a judge – hence some understandable alarm regarding the future of the sportscar firm this morning.
Group Lotus plc consists of Lotus Cars, Lotus Motorsport and Lotus Engineering – although crucially not the Lotus F1 team, which won the opening round of the 2013 Formula 1 championship in Melbourne, Australia, on Sunday.
The F1 team is an entirely separate entity – though it uses the Lotus name with Group Lotus plc’s permission – and would not be affected either way.
As for the court listing itself, a wind up application results when a creditor or group of creditors wants to have outstanding debts cleared via the liquidation of a company’s assets; Lotus is adamant that the situation leading to this particular action has now been resolved.
“We are NOT being liquidated," a Lotus spokesperson told us.