TVR trademark up for grabs, Smolenski out of the picture

Newswheel staff :: 07 February 2007 :: Filed under Front engine sportscar, TVR, Europe & UK

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Game over for the baby-faced oligarch?

The finer details of TVR’s recent history are approaching encyclopaedic proportions. However, it appears the Smolenski chapter of the saga may be drawing to a close. The receivers of the production arm of TVR, known as Blackpool Automotive, have revealed that Smolenski and Co. may not have retained the trademark rights to TVR after all, leaving the Russian with little, if any, ownership or involvement with TVR…

The tale of TVR

To cut a long and rather depressing story short, TVR was acquired by one Nikolai Smolenski, then just 24 years of age and son of Russian banking oligarch Alexander Smolenski, back in ’04. Despite plenty of fighting talk regarding his commitment to turning TVR into a goer, the wheels began to come off Smolenski’s plan last year, culminating in his decision to end production of TVRs in the UK in favour of an outsourcing arrangement, thought to be with Italian coachbuilder Bertone. Anyroad, as the redundancies mounted up in 2006, the situation for TVR’s Blackpool-based workforce grew grimmer and grimmer .

Then in January this year, TVR MD David Oxley revealed that the company had been split into three, apparently enabling Smolenski to spin off and expropriate TVR’s intellectual property and amputate the gangrenous limb that was the ailing Blackpool production arm, by then renamed Blackpool Automotive.
 
Further details of the split emerged when the Sunday times reported that Blackpool Automotive had been flogged to an unnamed buyer, just days before it then went into administration. Thus Smolenski was thought to have secured ownership and control of TVR trademarks and intellectual property and freed himself to move production overseas without the hassle and costs of closing down the factory himself.

Sticking it to Smolenski

However, things may not be quite so simple for the so-called ‘baby-faced oligarch’. On Friday, administrators for Blackpool Automotive officially listed the company for sale and released a schedule of associated assets which…wait for it…includes the trademarks for TVR in the EU, UK and US as well as moulds and tooling for various TVR models.

For the record, PKF, administrators for TVR, list the assets for sale thusly:

•    TVR trade marks for the UK, EU & US
•    Moulds & tooling - TVR Tuscan, Tamora, Sagaris & T350
•    Leasehold premises 14,000 sq m
•    Manufacturing plant, equipment, fixtures and fittings
•    Work in progress and vehicle stock
•    Draft turnover 12 months 31 December 2005 - £18.87m

What’s more, UK laws regarding the disposal of loss-making companies may yet return to haunt Smolenski. Millions in workforce redundancy liabilities could still land at his doorstop. Add that to the £15 million he originally forked out for TVR and the tens of millions he is thought to have since spent keeping the company afloat, then.

No news on whether Smolenski and the Russian brigade will be challenging PKF for rights to TVR trademarks.

Linkage:
Independent
Sunday Times