21/12/2014
NEWS STORY
The future of the Caterham Formula One team will be decided at a meeting of its creditors tomorrow (Monday) according to an article in the Express by Christian Sylt.
At the end of October Caterham Sports, the company which designed and built Caterham's F1 cars, collapsed into administration with debts of £16.2m and the team itself soon followed suit into the hands of administrators Smith & Williamson.
A meeting of creditors will take place tomorrow morning in London and recently-released documents state that they will be asked "to approve the administrators' proposals" which include "asking creditors to consider establishing a creditors' committee."
This group would have considerable powers including sanctioning "any proposed actions on the part of the administrators... without the need to report back to a further meeting of creditors generally." This means that the creditors who are not members of the committee would have far less say as the administrators would not have to resort to having meetings with all of them.
It is unclear which creditors will be members of the group but on pole position is Renault. As Pitpass revealed in October, it is owed the grand total of £7.4m which is more than any of the others.
The creditors' committee will not just get visibility of the plans for the future of the team, it will have a hand in deciding on them. The documents make this clear when they state that "if a creditors' committee is established the administrators will consult with its members as to the most appropriate means of exiting the administration."
Caterham joined F1 in 2010 but failed to score a single point. Its lack of success drove its shareholders, who were led by Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes, to sell up in June. The team was sold to the Engavest consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors but they failed to boost its performance.
Caterham only managed to race at last month's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by raising £2.4m through crowdfunding and it came at a cost. The documents reveal that Smith & Williamson has already burned up fees of £1.2m so it is likely to be the biggest winner in this sorry state of affairs.