Saturday, January 11, 2014

Fisker May Be Saved By A Whisker?



Folks this week saw an amazing series of events in the case of Fisker in the US Bankruptcy courts.

Inside EVs wrote a great article that details the events


Essentially the Chinese auto components company Wanxiang that bought A 123 (Fisker’s battery supplier) has entered the fray to gain control of Fisker with a plan to restart the Karma production and eventually produce the Atlantic at the assembly plant in Delaware.   The company Hybrid Technologies that bought the DOE loans at a severe discount and only wanted to pay a penny on the dollar to other creditors was rebuked by the bankruptcy judge who now wants to get more money for creditors via Wanxiang’s offer.    The US DOE loan is what it is and the US Taxpayers took their bath but other creditors may get more than one cent on the dollar.  The US got $25 million for $164 million invested with a loss of $139 million.

This could be better news for Delaware who would have lost essentially all of their $20 million “invested” in Fisker had the Hybrid Technologies deal sailed through bankruptcy court.   Interestingly the two feuding bidders are Chinese companies if one considers Hong Kong to be controlled by China.



My take is the whole thing was a set up.   Have the Hong Kong team wipe out Uncle Sam  and then play hard ball and then have a “white” knight come in and look good to get the other creditors a little more than one cent on the dollar.   The US Government had the trump card in the game with the secured position on the $164 million loan but quickly folded to walk away with a $139 million loss.   The Obama administration is a star at buying high and selling low (e.g. the sugar at the USDA).   The Chinese are the real capitalists and Moniz is looking more like what-me-worry each day.   This is one circus where the US is clown and the Chinese are the circus masters.  We the tax payers are the guys who clean up the ring after the circus animals do their plopping performances. 

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