After its subsidiary from Graz went bankrupt, the American company is now also bankrupt: the American electric car start-up Fisker filed for bankruptcy on Monday evening. Negotiations with a major car manufacturer had previously failed.
At the beginning of May, an in-house restructuring procedure had already been initiated in Graz through Fisker’s Austrian subsidiary. The American parent company has now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; assets of approximately $500 million to one billion dollars (467 to 934 million euros) are offset by debts of between $100 million and $500 million, the responsible court said.
Fisker had already announced in February that talks with an unnamed car manufacturer had failed. Reuters had learned from insiders that the Japanese car manufacturer Nissan was in advanced negotiations with Fisker about a cash injection.
The Los Angeles-based company, founded by Danish car designer Henrik Fisker, has long been aware that selling its vehicles is proving to be more difficult than originally planned. Added to this is the general cooling of demand for electric cars and the more difficult access to capital in times of higher interest rates.
Graz daughter with huge residues
According to KSV1870, the Graz-based company has booked debts worth as much as 1.34 billion euros (book value), while assets are said to amount to 959 million euros.
According to KSV 1870, the applicant is currently unable to maintain its solvency with the help of the liquidity inflow generated by its own company. This is attributed in no small part to a sharp decline in global demand for electric vehicles, high interest rates and price wars between different electric car manufacturers.
47 employees and more than 600 creditors
“Despite extensive restructuring efforts, Fisker US and the debtor have thus far failed to create sufficient liquidity,” the credit protectors said. 47 employees and more than 600 creditors are affected. Fisker has the electric car ‘Ocean’ built at Magna in Graz – but production has been at a standstill for a long time. Now the end result followed.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
