Carrera refuses to name buyer

Troubled systems builder Carrera is staying tight-lipped about its plans, although several companies including Evesham.com, Mesh and Hi-grade are rumoured to be interested in buying the company.

Troubled systems builder Carrera is staying tight-lipped about its plans, although several companies including Evesham.com, Mesh and Hi-grade are rumoured to be interested in buying the company.

Last week Carrera applied for an administration order. Accounting and financial services company Pannel Kerr Forster (PKF) was appointed joint administrator by the High Court. However, it was unable to confirm the name of the company interested in Carrera.

Nitin Joshi, director at PKF, explained it was approached by "major creditors last week who wanted to ensure their representatives had an active role in the insolvency of the company".

"My priority now is to maximise the sale of assets," Joshi added, confirming that there was one party interested in buying the business. "We are 99 per cent certain of a sale of the business by the end of this week."

The sale will then help to pay off some of the creditors, he said.

Carrera is hoping for a limited amount of trading, but its cash is frozen by the bank, Joshi added.

However, despite numerous attempts to get in contact with Carrera, which was set up in 1993 to provide tailored PCs to clients, its management is refusing to comment on the situation.

One industry source said: "The managers are probably extremely busy at the moment trying to keep the company on an even keel. It would seem that sales staff are under strict instructions to conduct business as usual."

Joshi added that some of the existing staff and management of Carrera would probably be kept on by the new company.

One of the firms rumoured to be buying Carrera, online reseller Evesham.com, has flatly denied any interest in taking over the company.

Richard Austin, managing director of Evesham.com, said: "These rumours are totally unfounded and are untrue. We are not in any way involved with talks to buy Carrera. However, we are pleased that people are associating us with moves of this type."

First published in Computer Reseller News