Just got this off of another list I'm on.
Roland
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http://www.drive.com.au/news/article.asp?article=http://drive.fairfax.com.au/content-new/news/general/2002/07/29/FFXIHV9974D.html
Aussie cash rescues a classic
By Julian Rendell
The Age
Monday July 29 2002
A refinancing package for a classic British sports car manufacturer has
come from an unlikely place – Australia. AC Motor Holdings Ltd, a
new holding company in Malta, has announced that it has bought the whole
of Britain's oldest car maker, AC Cars. Famous for the classic Cobra
muscle car of the 1960s, AC Cars has suffered under a nine million pound
debt and last year made only 35 cars. AC Motor Holdings secured
longterm finance for the deal from Volkswagen Financial Services
Australia Ltd. The driving forces behind the new company are the
chairman and chief executive officer of AC Cars, Alan Lubinsky, and
Australian Lamborghini importer James Smith, who will head AC Motor
Holdings' Australian operations. Smith is also a partner with Lubinsky
in the Verte Automotive Group, the company set up to distribute
rebadged, LPG-powered Ford Falcon utes in Britain.
The funding link is believed to be part of last year's deal in which AC
became the sales agent for Verte in Britain. AC is also receiving help
from another unlikely source – the Mediterranean island nation of
Malta. Production of AC's carbon-fibre Cobra look-alike, the CRS
(pictured), will switch to the tiny island as part of the refinancing
package, together with the Mamba coupe and the lightweight Ace. The
Malta Development Corporation will provide funding assistance for the
purpose-designed factory. The new company has also secured a contract
with a US importer for sale of the alloy-bodied Mark III, an updated
version of the Cobra original, which will be produced at AC's existing
plant in Frimley, England. Frimley will continue to be the centre for
the design, engineering and prototyping of future AC models. Australia,
too, will be vital to the company's success. Apart from offering a
sales channel for Australian buyers, the local offshoot is set to be
positioned as a spearhead to potentially lucrative Asian markets. AC
has had a chequered recent history. In December, 1996, it was bought
out of administration by a consortium of businessmen led by Lubinsky,
which attempted to put a new sports car, called the Ace, into production
from a lowcost South African factory. However, the plan foundered.
Ford recently bought back the rights to the Cobra name. This settled an
ongoing dispute with Carroll Shelby, with whom AC created the Cobra in
the 1960s, over the rights to the famous nameplate. The dispute
simmered and occasionally boiled over under AC's previous owner, Brian
Angliss. And a recent move to a new factory in England hasn't gone
smoothly, disrupting production for the best part of nine months.
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