Dutch combat vehicle builder Defenture narrowly escaped bankruptcy
Defenture, the Dutch manufacturer of advanced combat vehicles, narrowly escaped bankruptcy last week. A new capital injection was all that saved the showpiece of the Dutch defense industry, major shareholder Christian Westers told Financieele Dagblad.
According to the newspaper, Defenture battled production problems and had such an acute shortage of money in recent months that it could no longer pay salaries and its suppliers. On top of that, the company was also struggling with a heated and escalating dispute between the two major shareholders - investment funds Azur and NCJ, sources told the newspaper.
The shareholders managed to avert a collapse - barely - last week with a capital injection, Westers confirmed. “It was a close call,” he told the newspaper, speaking of a “tumultuous week.”
The emerging combat vehicle manufacturer is considered the showpiece of the Dutch defense industry. In recent years, the company has won one order after another, building armored vehicles for Poland, Lithuania, Germany, and the Netherlands, among others.
The near demise of the Tiel-based company comes at a time when the European Union is working on an 800 billion euros plan to rearm Europe and make it less dependent on the United States for protection.
