MAY 17, 2007

A change at Spyker

The Spyker car company has been working its way through some cash-flow problems of late as it tries to get itself organised to meet demand for its road cars and pay for its adventures in Formula 1. The Spyker order books are filled for some years to come but producing the cars quickly enough is not easy without money, and it is difficult to get the money until you build the cars.

This has meant that the company has been funding its activities by selling off equity bit by bit and this has now started to change the balance of power within the business with the new shareholders now flexing their muscles and the old management having less influence. The first sign of this is that Victor Muller, the man who revived the business, has now stood down as chairman and has been replaced by Michiel Mol, the man who is in charge of the F1 project.

Mol's power comes from the fact that his father Jan owns around 40% of the Spyker shares. It will be interesting to see what happens next but with F1 teams beginning to think about merging into six superteams, Spyker F1 has once again become a valuable commodity.