Norways Branson buys half of Koenigsegg
2005-12-20: Carl Thulin
Swedish Koenigsegg, who's manufacturing the fastest car on the planet, becomes half norweigan. "Norways Richard Branson", raceboatworldchampion and industrialdesigner B?rd Eker from Fredrikstad has bought 45 percent of Koenigsegg.
?ngelholmsbased Koenigsegg is the boydream that's lead to the faster car in the world. The von Koenigsegg family now lets go of the company for an unknown amount of money. A new issue has made the norweigan millionarie and industrial designer B?rd Eker the biggest owner, with 45 percent of the shares.
B?rd Eker and VD Christian von Koenigsegg met through a chinese carbonfibremanufacturer a couple of year ago. Since two and a half year the norweigan has been involved in the design of new models and now he will become the main owner.
"Who is he? Norways Richard Branson is probably the best way of describing him. He does whatever he wants and makes it work.", says Christian von Koenigsegg.
"The investment in Koenigsegg works fine with our ideas. It's a strategic investment, we didn't do it to earn alot of money and the spend it all on the beaches of Spain. We felt that we needed something that was more international. We are good at making nicheproducts with good performance.", says B?rd Eker, who's designed everything from lawnmovers for Electrolux to projectors for Toshiba.
He owns a motorboatmanufacturer, and after buying tycoon Bj?rn Rune Gjelstens monster Spirit of Norway he has just become the world champion in offshore, class 1, with himelfs behind the wheel.
Christian von Koenigsegg also sees big syrnetic effects, but admit that there are some economical reasons as well. The company is making profit, Koenigsegg Automobile AB turned over 28,5Mkr and made a profit of 5,6Mkr after taxes.But the bar has been raised and for the next year, Christian von Koenigsegg is aiming to sell 25-30 cars, which is about as many as the company has sold since the foundation in 1993.
That goal will be reached partly after the new cars has been adapted to american requirements.
"USA constitutes about half the market for supercars - therefore we're dubeling our potential. California is the world's biggest market and we've got an enormous interest there", says Christian von Koenigsegg.
On the Ganeve car show in mars next year, Koenigsegg will present it's third model, the first that B?rd Eker has been involved in. Neither of them won't way anything about it, but Christian promises that it will be faster than the CCR, which holds the present speed record.
The new model will reach the marked at the end of 2007 or the beginning of 2008.
The price for a Koenigsegg does start at 5 Mkr, but producing luxury cars in Sweden is far from any goldmine.
"I think the really big profits lies far into the future. It's not easy producing in high-cost countrys such as Sweden and Norway.", says B?rd Eker.
Koenigsegg has a total of about 80 shareholders. The von Koenigsegg family owns after the issue about 30 percent, estimates Christian von Koenigsegg. Otherwise it's mostly swedish people who thinks it nice with a swedish car in the ownerlist. But Volvo PV is there too - Koenigsegg changed some shares for some time in a windtunnel a couple of years ago.
FACTS ABOUT KOENIGSEGG
Koenigsegg got a starting capital from Nutek in 1994. The first car was tested on the track in Anderstorp in 1996. Then they brought in the riskcapital. The von Koenigsegg family has spent about 15 Mkr i the company.
According to the 33-year old VD there's no other car in production that beats Koenigsegg in terms of performance. He's aware that Bugatti has built a faster car, but that's in a straigt line. "No one beats us around a track. That's where we're doing 388km/h."
The company has got 35 employees.
The sale capacity will be raised to 25-30 til next year. The VD hopes that all of them will be sold, but says that the company will make profit even at lower volumes.
A Koenigsegg CCR costs 458.000 euro plus local taxes, VAT, transport and extra equipment. A normally equipped costs about 5 Mkr in Sweden incl VAT. But not a single car has been sold here so far. The buyers are in Norway, Arabia, Germany, France, Taiwan, Japan, China, Singapore and Russia. Most cars are sold through retailers.
Christian von Koenigsegg doesn't want to give out any names, but it is known to the public that the norweigan telecommillionarie Vidar Vollvik has bought one.
