Less than 48 hours after the offer of a Dutch consortium led by a veteran of the cycle industry, Brian Mogensen, the latter has finally retracted and will not take over VanMoof, whose situation remains unresolved. But a new actor, Turkish this time, would have positioned himself on the file.
Definitely, the twists around the VanMoof affair are multiple and almost daily. Hardly a day goes by without a new element coming to upset this sad affair. As a reminder, this Dutch company specializing in connected electric bicycles has been bankrupt since July 17.
The 700 employees and the tens and tens of thousands of customers have since been awaiting an outcome to know their fate. Obviously, we expected various buyout offers. There have been some, but they all failed: Micromobility and Lavoie (a subsidiary of McLaren Applied), at first… followed by a third failure quite recently.
One step forward, three steps back
Indeed, a veteran of the Accell group, in the person of Brian Mogensen, was at the head of a Dutch consortium to formulate a takeover offer. Problem: less than 48 hours later, said offer has already vanished. ” There are too many problems with this companyMr. Mogensen admitted to Cycling Electric.
Here’s VanMoof again in trouble…unless a new band comes to the rescue to save him from this situation. And this would be precisely the case, since the Turkish company BinBin, a subsidiary of 1000 Yatirimlar Holding specializing in shared electric transport offers, would have aroused interest.
However, this should be treated with great caution. We contacted Jan Padberg, the administrator who oversees VanMoof’s bankruptcy process in the Netherlands, who told us: ” I’m afraid this is all just a rumour. We haven’t received an offer from them. “.
In theory and based on the words of Mr. Padberg, no new formal takeover offer has therefore been sent to VanMoof. The problem is that the race against the clock is getting more and more tricky.
A colossal debt
According to the mediaBright, the Employee Insurance Agency (Uitvoeringsinstituut werknemersverzekeringen, UWV) would be able to pay VanMoof employees until August 30 maximum. After this deadline, this social protection will disappear and no more salary will be paid to them.
On August 22, the financial newspaperFD– he was the one who exposed VanMoof’s financial difficulties in January 2023 – revealed that the firm’s debt stood at 144 million euros at the time bankruptcy was declared. This case is undoubtedly a financial quagmire for any buyer who wishes to position himself on the file.
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