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a bit more info from today's FT - wonder if NS has a dog.....? 
TVR carmaker sold to Russian tycoon
By John Griffiths in London and Arkady Ostrovsky in Moscow
Published: July 27 2004 21:57 | Last Updated: July 27 2004 21:57
TVR, the British maker of wildly styled and fiendishly fast cars, has been sold to Nikolai Smolensky, 23, one of Russia's youngest millionaires and the son of a controversial tycoon whose banking empire collapsed during the 1998 financial crisis.
Mr Smolensky's father, Alexander, was one of the oligarchs who bankrolled the re-election campaign of former president Boris Yeltsin in 1996.
He was accused of shifting assets into other companies while leaving depositors in his SBS Agro bank with nothing after its bankruptcy. But he was never found guilty, denies any wrongdoing and later launched another bank, OVK.
TVR's 400-strong workforce were told on Tuesday that Nikolai Smolensky planned a substantial investment to take the Blackpool company into North America and other global markets.
Neither side would say how much Mr Smolensky has paid for a company whose giant-killing reputation exceeds its output of about 1,000 cars a year. Its last published accounts show a profit of about £400,000 in 2002.
TVR's employees had known that Peter Wheeler, a former North Sea oil engineer who bought the company 23 years ago, had been considering selling and had hoped it would go to an enthusiast. The new owner appears to fit the bill. Marketing director Ben Samuelson said: "He's a mad keen motor racing enthusiast who's driven loads of TVRs."
TVR fans will be relieved that Mr Wheeler will be staying on to oversee styling and engineering. He and his deceased spaniel, Ned, have become industry legends: Mr Wheeler for styling the best-selling TVR Tuscan on the back of a Marlboro cigarette pack; Ned for biting a chunk out of a foam model prototype, creating what became the front light apertures of the TVR Chimaera.
TVR carmaker sold to Russian tycoon
By John Griffiths in London and Arkady Ostrovsky in Moscow
Published: July 27 2004 21:57 | Last Updated: July 27 2004 21:57
TVR, the British maker of wildly styled and fiendishly fast cars, has been sold to Nikolai Smolensky, 23, one of Russia's youngest millionaires and the son of a controversial tycoon whose banking empire collapsed during the 1998 financial crisis.
Mr Smolensky's father, Alexander, was one of the oligarchs who bankrolled the re-election campaign of former president Boris Yeltsin in 1996.
He was accused of shifting assets into other companies while leaving depositors in his SBS Agro bank with nothing after its bankruptcy. But he was never found guilty, denies any wrongdoing and later launched another bank, OVK.
TVR's 400-strong workforce were told on Tuesday that Nikolai Smolensky planned a substantial investment to take the Blackpool company into North America and other global markets.
Neither side would say how much Mr Smolensky has paid for a company whose giant-killing reputation exceeds its output of about 1,000 cars a year. Its last published accounts show a profit of about £400,000 in 2002.
TVR's employees had known that Peter Wheeler, a former North Sea oil engineer who bought the company 23 years ago, had been considering selling and had hoped it would go to an enthusiast. The new owner appears to fit the bill. Marketing director Ben Samuelson said: "He's a mad keen motor racing enthusiast who's driven loads of TVRs."
TVR fans will be relieved that Mr Wheeler will be staying on to oversee styling and engineering. He and his deceased spaniel, Ned, have become industry legends: Mr Wheeler for styling the best-selling TVR Tuscan on the back of a Marlboro cigarette pack; Ned for biting a chunk out of a foam model prototype, creating what became the front light apertures of the TVR Chimaera.
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