GILROY
– It’s been seven weeks since seven bidders made offers on the
defunct Indian Motorcycle Company’s assets, and the leading auction
official now says a winner will probably be announced by Christmas
or New Year’s Eve at the latest. “I can’t imagine it going any
further out than the end of
the year,” Chuck Klaus, estate manager for Credit Managers
Association of California, said Wednesday.
GILROY – It’s been seven weeks since seven bidders made offers on the defunct Indian Motorcycle Company’s assets, and the leading auction official now says a winner will probably be announced by Christmas or New Year’s Eve at the latest.
“I can’t imagine it going any further out than the end of the year,” Chuck Klaus, estate manager for Credit Managers Association of California, said Wednesday.
Indian hired CMA to liquidate its trademarks and Gilroy factory and pass the proceeds on to its creditors – an alternative to bankruptcy court.
Klaus has predicted sell-by dates before, to no avail. The auction keeps being extended, Klaus maintains, because the price keeps rising, but rising from what, and how much? These are questions neither he nor Indian Chairman Frank O’Connell have answered, for fear of jeopardizing the final price.
O’Connell’s responses indicate, however, that Indian and CMA officials may have found the original seven bids disappointingly low on Oct. 24. While O’Connell wouldn’t go so far as to acknowledge that Wednesday, he came close.
“I don’t think anybody knew what to expect in the original bids,” O’Connell said.
