Million dollar celeb mobile phone firm plots a comeback
LUXURY smartphone maker Vertu is plotting a comeback despite going bust owing more than £42.6m to 327 creditors and amid an investigation over transferred assets.
Nearly 180 staff lost their jobs when the manufacturing arm folded in July, in the red to the tune of £128m, months after it was bought for £1 by Turkish tycoon Hakan Uzan.
Vertu made jewel-encrusted smartphones in Hampshire for the rich and famous – selling them for up to £280,000. In its heyday, celebrity fans included model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and actresses Uma Thurman and Michelle Yeoh.
It is believed the firm’s intellectual property and overseas branches were transferred to a separate French branch as part of the takeover – a transaction now being investigated by liquidators. But bosses are now planning a comeback. A Vertu spokesman said: ‘We are increasingly confident that the tough decisions we have taken will result in a stronger and more exciting Vertu.’
Vertu was founded in 1998, sold to a private equity group and then to Hong Kong’s Godin Holdings in 2015. Uzan bought it from Godin in March for £1 and says his team unearthed huge financial problems.
Bosses went to the High Court in July to try to put Vertu Corporation Ltd into administration and buy it back, but dropped the application and it instead went into liquidation.
The 178 staff laid off had not been paid since May and five months of pension contributions are missing.
Liquidators Griffins have found insurance premiums had not been paid, meaning staff medical cover had been withdrawn, according to the liquidators’ report seen by the Mail. The firm had not paid IT suppliers, making it harder for liquidators to find the data needed to do their work. Griffins says the company owes £42.6m to 327 creditors and they have sold around £1.91m worth of gems, phones and jewels to help pay debts.
They are now probing the transfer of assets to Uzan’s company Vertu AK France as part of his takeover, as well as ‘a number of allegations from external sources in respect of the conduct of the company and the management.’ Overseas branches were also struggling to pay staff.
Director Jean-Charles Charki said Vertu was bogged down in huge waste when Uzan took over, with some suppliers unpaid for a year.
Griffins said yesterday: ‘We continue our investigation into the demise of this company.’