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Aston Martin is suing two Swiss dealers whom it claims have withheld more than £ 10 million in money from customers who had been paid for its £ 2.5 million Valkyrie hypermarket.
The luxury vehicle manufacturer said on Tuesday that it is submitting documents to the Swiss criminal prosecutor asking him to investigate the board members of Nebula Project AG.
Aston will also file a civil lawsuit against Nebula Project, which managed some customer deposits for the hypermarket. The carmaker will make a profit of £ 15 million this year and reserve another undisclosed amount next year, it said in a statement.
The Valkyrie is a star product for Aston Martin, with a limited run of 150 models and 30 more for a racetrack version designed to lead the company’s drive towards mid-engined models.
“Aston Martin is fully committed to supporting and working with those affected customers to ensure that they will still receive delivery of their vehicles from the Valkyrie program as scheduled,” the vehicle manufacturer added.
At least £ 10 million of the £ 15 million access comes from missing customer deposits. The remaining £ 5 million comes from an accounting provision due to changes in trade agreements after the group terminated the Aston Martin dealership run by the same directors in Switzerland. The company has four other dealers in the country.
The two directors of the business are Andreas Baenziger and Florian Kamelger, according to previous presentations and press releases about the project.
The pair helped Aston fund the Valkyrie in 2016 by offering to subscribe to the project and managing some Swiss customer deposits, which were used to fund the car’s development.
In return, Nebula had to charge commissions for sales of the Valkyrie model, as well as two later cars based on the same technology, the Valhalla and the Vanquish.
Since it has now canceled the deal, Aston believes it will avoid having to pay a reduction in sales to Nebula, which will leave the car financially better in the long run despite the success of finances over the next two years. .
“It is expected that the financial impact of not having received all the deposited funds will be offset by the benefit of the resolution of the Nebula agreement and possible associated royalty payments,” Aston said.
The unusual financing model was launched at a time when Aston was struggling financially and could not invest in the vehicle, which he said will be the fastest and most expensive road car ever manufactured.
Although the deposits paid to Nebula by the buyers of the hypercar were transferred to Aston, the directors of Nebula also collected other payments from some customers, which they did not pass on to the vehicle manufacturer, it is alleged in court proceedings.
Several Aston clients have joined the legal case, which was first reported by the Financial Times overnight. The vehicle manufacturer assures that it will respect the sales agreements. Car deliveries are expected to begin in September and take place next year.
The episode is a disgrace to the business at a time when it seeks to regain investor confidence under the new direction of Lawrence Stroll.
The Canadian billionaire last year led to a £ 540m bailout and now it’s his chair, which pushes his electric cars back and focuses on Valkyrie-based mid-engine super-debtors to steal Ferrari customers.
Sales of the valkyrie were expected to begin in 2020, but were delayed until later this year after the pandemic affected product testing.
The Valkyla supercar, which is based on the Valkyrie, will also appear in the upcoming James Bond film There is no time to die.
Nebula directors have been contacted for comments.
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