Currently reading: Group Lotus winding-up petition dismissed by High Court
Norfolk-based sports car company says winding-up order was based on a contractual dispute that had already been resolved amicably

An application to wind up Group Lotus plc has been dismissed by the High Court today.

As reported by Autocar this morning, the name of Group Lotus – which comprises Lotus Cars, Lotus Motorsport and Lotus Engineering – appeared on the Companies Court Winding Up list to be heard at the High Court.

Such cases are often the result of a creditor or group of creditors seeking to have a company's assets liquidated as a result of failure to pay debts.

However, according to a statement issued by Group Lotus this afternoon, earlier this year the company was in a contractual dispute which was subsequently resolved amicably.

The High Court process means that the matter still has to be completed before a judge before proceedings can be formally disposed of. Today the claim was dismissed with no order as to costs.

 

 

 

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Aussierob 19 March 2013

Bye bye Lotus

We have loved and hated you in equal measure.

Those mornings when you wouldn't start, the windows wouldn't open, or worse, the drivers door. That bend that not other car at any price could have taken so well, the bump in the road that would have thrown any other car off course.

They made great kit cars, back in the day, so you could fix them yourself when they reverted to a kit of parts.

More recently, great styling but no realistic chance of competing with the big boys.

So, real shame, but it was inevitable. Thanks for the laughs (Bahar in particular) and all the fun you gave us. R.I.P.

Ravon 18 March 2013

curious insider

I for one will miss your remarkable insights, my own post, with similar views to yourself with regard to Autocar , posted at about 10:30 this morning was removed, suspect yours will be removed by morning.

Good Luck, you'll be missed .

devil's advocate 19 March 2013

Same old tabloid Autocar,

Last year, to gain website viewings Autocar ran consistently wrong stories about the imminent demise of Aston Martin, a couple of weeks ago, a negative story about Charles Morgan stepping aside as Managing Director as a result of "investor pressure!"

 

Aston Martin now has new capital from new investors, not a forced sale.

 

Charles Morgan remains as Chairman of Morgan and he and his family & family trusts own 100% of Morgan, so with a new MD he can concentrate on marketing and product development.

 

LOTUS are coming to the end of a new model programme, admittedly Dany Behar was a joke Chief Exec, but the new owners DRB didn't buy the company to close it.

 

I do wish Autocar concentrated on what is actually happening rather than resorting to cheap, sensationalist and incorrect headlines. The original article actually said the headline was wrong, so why publish it?

 

 

curious_insider 18 March 2013

Enough of this shoddy journalism...good bye Autocar.

Personally I'm appalled by the reckless and sensationalist headlining this morning.  Not that I'm for any sense of jingoism here or overly sentimental treatment of Lotus, (which sadly I fear isn't far from oblivion due to terrible mis-management over many years and a lack of continuity in strategy) but some ACCURACY wouldn't go amiss.

Far too often on these pages we see INACCURACY be it as simple as spelling mistakes through to misquoted technical details or conflicting information.  Those are unecessary and avoidable, but other than serving to irritate the reader (well me, anyway) have little consequence.

In this case however, the original headline may have caused far more damage to Group Lotus than the actual legal proceedings themselves.  For the sake of what? attention-grabbing or a simple lack of understanding / research? both are pretty unforgiveable.

I live and breathe this industry (it pays my mortgage!) and although whether Lotus survives or not would have little impact on me personally, I'm appalled that a "journalist" could be allowed to be so irresponsible.

Enough.  I will not read this rag anymore.