After two failed receivership auctions, Erik Buell Racing has been acquired by Liquid Asset Partners for $2.05 million on Wednesday January 13. Liquid Asset Partners have a peculiar interest in EBR, having been appointed the liquidators of Buell Motorcycles, the former company started by Erik Buell and then owned by Harley-Davidson.
A second auction was required after the winner of the first auction, Bruce Belfer, failed to deliver the required funds on deadline for the purchasing of the company. That auction win subsequently went to Liquid Asset Partners, however a third auction was required after Belfer and another potential bidder, US Heritage Powersport, contested the second auction result.
Now it appears EBR is once and for all sold, and Liquid Asset Partners now begins the task of repaying EBR’s outstanding creditors (Japan’s Mito Tech Co is owed $733,000, while the Porsche Engineering Group is owed $390,000) and employees, who are owed over $200,000 in paid time off.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Liquid Asset Partners owner Bill Melvin Jnr, hopes to get EBR up and running again as a motorcycle manufacturer, although it won’t be directly through Liquid Asset Partners but more as its own separate company.
“We will not be manufacturing motorcycles, as Liquid Asset, but we will be working to put together a plan with a team that can be successful in doing that,” Melvin Jnr said. “There are no guarantees. A portion of our business is that we are liquidators, but we are also power players in the motorcycle industry.”
