GasGas is in insolvency proceedings

[Peff]

Sry for my bad English,
I don t know if there is any thread about the insolvency proceedings of Gasgas

https://www.facebook.com/rltgasgas?fref=ts
europapress.es/motor/motos-006?dores-20150519150014.html
expansion.com/catalunya/2015/0?f54dca474162768b456e.html

 

[Dunc]

Bugger, a real shame! A translation would be good.

 

[Tbucket]

Gas Gas has bankruptcy
GIRONA, 19 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The manufacturer of motorcycles Gas Gas has filed bankruptcy in the Commercial Court of Girona, four months after it was declared insolvent with the presentation of a preconcurso, to Europa Press sources of the Superior Court of Catalonia (TSJC).
The company based in Salt (Girona) has submitted the application for bankruptcy with liabilities of 40 million time after failing to find a partner willing to invest, as published Tuesday 'Expansion', 'La Vanguardia' and 'Ara'.
The manufacturer of trial and enduro motorcycles preconcurso presented in January to have room to restructure its debt, given the delay in decision-making by some of its major creditors.
The bank was willing to renegotiate the debt if they could usher in a partner to provide at least five million euros, which has not been achieved on time.
Gas Gas signed an agreement in early 2013 with an Israeli investment group agreed to invest 9 million euros to finance the strategic plan of the company until 2015.
The main investors have departed from the management to the president of the company Girona, Ramon Puente, who is also a shareholder.
PUBLIC RESOURCES
In February last year, the Government, through Avan?sa, provided a shareholder loan of two million euros, and the Government and the company are in talks to provide more resources.
Sources from the Ministry of Enterprise and Employment, headed by the Minister Felip Puig, have said told Europa Press that the Government is willing to provide more resources "provided there is a viability plan", and stressed that talks with the company has not been closed.
Redundancy
After presenting the preconcurso, the direction of the committee Gas Gas Company announced its intention to apply a layoff (ERE) of extinction for 26 workers, one quarter of the workforce, a hundred employees.
Management also announced a temporary ERE for other workers, six months suspension in a maximum of two years in addition to a pay cut.

 

[ScottyR]

No. This all part of the "Master Plan". Things are good with GG.

 

[eff]

Bankruptcy is how they will restructure and re-emerge. Many companies that you know have done the same, i.e. Formica.

 

[GasGasDreamer]

Bankruptcy is how they will restructure and re-emerge. Many companies that you know have done the same, i.e. Formica.

if I remember correctly, after formica did this, they were able to lower the prices and capture more of the market.
the bad thing is that 'someone' gets shortchanged on these deals, usually the smaller suppliers.
when maximizing profits at all costs is the mindset, imho it is just wrong.
sort of like gm not doing a recall cause only 100 people have died due to steering locking issues. maybe 200 is the number they need. I know I wont buy one.
I don't think im or socialist or any other 'ist' but this capitalism is a plague of greed.
there more to life than money and that holds for businesses too, imho
I apologize if I went on a rant

 

[eff]

Exactly. My company was ine of them. Lol

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[gasgasxc]

No Dreamer.
You are absolutely correct.
They know they can restructure the debt, well ahead.
Doesnt leave much accountabity as far as the manufacturer, importers, dealers and reps-sales strategy goes.

They need to cut the hobby craft off road crap and stick to trials bikes.
Gas Gas is the Overlord in that realm.

For those of you who bleed Gas Gas offroad.
Who are way to sensitive when it comes to the brand.
Ive seen it plenty.

No need to pile it on me.
You will not change or influence my opinion one bit.
So save it.

 

[VxZeroKnots]

+1 Dreamer, you are spot on.

 

[MargusV]

It seems to me that these Israeli investors underestimated the complexity of making business in Spanish/Catalunyan environment. Cutting labour costs is not a simple task there and also relationships with suppliers seem to rely on personal contacts alot. And Catalans are proud people for sure so one can expect them to react painfully to purchase of Catalan company by foreigners.

Actually I think (hope?) that potential investors have already lined up and GasGas will be turned around pretty fast.

 

[ScottyR]

My gut tells me that the Israelis will buy the whole kit and kaboodle from the banks for pennys on the dollar (euro) and re-invent themselves as a new company with no debt.

If this doesnt happen, then its lights out for GG.

 

[Moto7man]

My gut tells me that the Israelis will buy the whole kit and kaboodle from the banks for pennys on the dollar (euro) and re-invent themselves as a new company with no debt.

If this doesnt happen, then its lights out for GG.

That would be a good outcome.This doesn't seem like a controlled plan but rather an out of control crash and the wheels have come off the wagon. Well, goll dang it and horse feathers!!!!! I am about all ready to plunk down the greenbacks for a 2016 GG and this happens......

 

[papa_j]

Meh

This could just be the typical growing pains of a dirt bike company amplified by our love of the brand.

That being said, many of the mistakes that Gas Gas is trying to recover from are self inflicted and unforced management errors. I wish them luck. I would need a couple of years of stability before buying another.

 

[micko24]

Should this limit the parts availability of previous models?

 

[2taddict]

I never knew that money from the sales of Gas Gas motorcycles was going to Israel.

 

[Mark Berg - CPD]

World Tour of Poker

Guys, this whole scenario has been playing out like a world tour poker event.

The investment group bought into GG less than 2 years ago because they were passionate about motorcycling and especially about GG because their very good friend is the distributor in Israel. After close evaluation, many board meetings and countless hours of accounting, it was obvious that GG as a whole is sound and possibly a very profitable company. The big hurdle was the mass increasing debt and interest from the 2003-2006 four stroke era that has been pushed from bank to bank. The investors do not feel they need to be down burdened with this debt and thus in order to make the company be a possible company of growth and success, they started playing a very high stakes game about 6 months ago to reconstruct the business, reduce the debt and start making GG a profitable company.

In my opinion, this is the only chance GasGas has, as it has been a struggle despite better quality product to overcome the obstacles of the past debt and to focus on a better enduro and trial bike only!

This is down to the last hand now, filing for Chapter 11. There are elections in that region within 2 weeks and there is pressure from many sides to get this resolved before such time. There still is a pile of chips on the table as i know there are different investors watching and waiting to see what the Catalan government decides to do.

Do i think GG will produce bikes again? Absolutely! My biggest concern is the time frame. If this is resolved within weeks, we will have August production (Rod and I have already seen the revisions) but if it takes longer, than we will be waiting for production to roll again in November, December is the toughest thing for us to overcome every fall with our dealer network and sales.

 

[memphis2857]

Thanks Mark! It's good to see one of you guys finally step up and explain exactly what is going on.


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[webmaster]

Closing this thread so that it ends with Mark's message on what's going on and it doesn't head off in a different direction.. Feel free to start another thread to discuss how you think company should move on, etc...

And I am not censoring *anything*! This is a moderated forum and sometimes you split things/end things so that the conversations have better direction and clarity. I don't want mark's message to get lost in the fog...

jeff