Mindset (company)

The Mindset Holding AG (until May 2009 Spirt Avert AG ) was a Swiss company. His subsidiary Mindset AG, which was dissolved by the bankruptcy court, presented the project of an electric car . Mindset Holding AG is majority owned by CommCept AG, based in Küsnacht ZH , owned by Lorenzo Rudolf Schmid from Bülach.

Companies

The aim of the company founded in July 2007 was the development and production of an electric car. The overall development was controlled from the former headquarters in Horw, where the company was sublet from the majority shareholder CommCept AG until October 2009. The production of the only prototype completed in the fourth quarter of 2008 was completely taken over by external partner companies. Since January 2011, the headquarters of Mindset AG, like Commcept AG, have been in Küsnacht ZH in an old villa. The company does not have its own production. This is to be taken over by an outside manufacturer, whereby Mindset still does not have such a production contract as of October 24, 2010.

Due to a lack of capital, which ultimately led to the company's over-indebtedness at the end of 2009, no major project steps have been implemented since the end of 2008 and, in extreme cases, the mindset project may be discontinued. In May 2009 Mindset Holding announced a capital requirement of 166 million francs for Mindset AG, which should have been financed through two capital increases, but never happened due to a lack of investors.

A financing agreement announced on May 9, 2010 with the investment company Global Emerging Markets Limited (GEM) for a maximum amount of 183.260 million francs, of which 75 million francs was equity through the issue of warrants , was to date (as of September 24, 2010, publication Semi-annual report 2010) not completed. In the first half of 2010, Mindset Holding only carried out two small capital increases totaling 250,000 shares with a nominal value of CHF 3. In July 2010, a third small capital increase followed in the amount of 772 shares with a nominal value of 3 francs.

The last investments in research and development amount to CHF 268,000 for the whole of 2009, with CHF 251,000 for the first half of the year. In the first half of 2010, according to the half-year results, no more investments were made in research and development. According to the semi-annual report 2010 published on September 24, 2010, the company is still over-indebted as of mid-2010. Equity is shown at minus 107,000 francs.

At the Annual General Meeting on June 18, 2012, Christian Zimmermann was newly elected to the Board of Directors, alongside Paolo Tumminelli and Lorenzo Schmid (re-election). Christian Zimmermann has also been a member of the board of directors of mindset AG, which was dissolved under bankruptcy law, since 2010. Lorenzo Schmid was its Chairman of the Board of Directors and Managing Director. Ms. Simonetta Muschi was director and acted as chief financial officer.

With an order and judgment dated August 28, 2012, the bankruptcy judge of the Meilen District Court opened the bankruptcy of the company with effect from August 28, 2012 at 10:00 am; accordingly the society is dissolved.

According to the company's press release, the Mindset Group is over-indebted and insolvent and filed for bankruptcy at the Höfe SZ district court on August 31, 2012. In 2013, both Mindset AG and Mindset Holding AG were deleted from the commercial register after the bankruptcy proceedings were concluded.

After the company initially specified the second half of 2009 as the target for the market launch and had repeatedly postponed the date, company owner Lorenzo Schmid told the media in October 2010 that the date for the first series delivery of 1,500 copies at a unit price of 100,000 was towards the end of 2011 Francs.

history

The project was presented to the media in 2008 and in the first half of 2009 and commented accordingly by the press. A drivable prototype was also presented as a test model, which was completed in the factory of the French Heuliez Group. Among other things, numerous reports were published in the automotive press on the basis of the prototype presented and the company's own information. A marketable vehicle, however, has not yet been produced.

Murat Günak , who held this position from July 2007 to the end of January 2009 on a mandate basis, was hired as managing director of Mindset AG . The target for the market launch was initially specified as the second half of 2009, but the launch date was postponed several times. As the reason for the delay, the company stated a necessary capital increase at the end of 2008, the financing of which had not yet been clarified. Experts were already skeptical in the initial phase of the project. In addition, according to various press reports, the company was already struggling with financial difficulties in 2008.

At the beginning of 2010, Buchter and Keller left the company together with the entire engineering team due to different strategic views. At the same time, Paolo Tumminelli from Cologne resigned, who was later re-elected to the Board of Directors in absentia. In order to provide liquidity, the placement of 50,000 shares at five francs was announced in February 2010. In addition, Mindset Holding AG called an extraordinary general meeting on March 12, 2010 , at which, among other things, a previously unfinished restructuring by means of a capital cut and the relocation of the holding company to Freienbach in the canton of Schwyz were approved by the shareholders. Leon Hustinx was newly elected to the Board of Directors. He worked in various marketing and sales functions at Daimler AG until mid-2008 and was engaged by the German consulting company kleinundpläcking at the end of 2008 to set up a sales structure for Mindset.

The new industrial partners, including BRUSA Elektronik AG, Xenatec Group , Benteler Engineering Services and swissauto Wenko AG , were presented at an investor and press day on November 8, 2010 .

As of June 30, 2011, the company had not received any significant capital. In 2011, only 72,000 francs could be spent on R&D, i.e. the further development of the mindset, while management claimed personnel costs of over 360,000 francs. Overall, the company still had 19,000 francs in cash as of June 30, 2011, with 3.36 million francs in debt and negative equity of 1.8 million francs. The only asset is a prototype, which in 2011 was retrospectively valued at 1.5 million francs.

vehicle

The planned hybrid electric vehicle mindset is to be a serial hybrid, full hybrid and plug-in hybrid . A not yet drivable prototype of the 2 + 2-seater was presented in 2008.

The car will have a 100  kW strong electric motor equipped, it in 6.9 seconds to 100  h km / should accelerate or optional four-wheel drive with two hybrid synchronous motors, each on a power of 100 kW at 220 Nm of torque with an acceleration of 0 100 km / h in under four seconds. The top speed will be limited to 150 km / h. The battery charge should be sufficient for 400 km of electric operation in the overall ECE cycle. The batteries type lithium-ion accumulator should be able to be recharged in one hour.

With a range extender, a range of 800 km should be possible. The range extender should be able to be expanded in order to save weight in everyday use. With the range extender, fuel consumption should be less than 4 liters per 100 km at a constant speed of 120 km / h. The miniature engine integrated in the rear is a single-cylinder four-stroke petrol engine with a displacement of 300 cm³ and an output of 26 kW.

Depending on how the electricity is produced to charge the batteries, the CO ₂ emissions are 1 to 55 grams per kilometer. If the range extender is used, the CO ₂ emissions are between 14 and 70 grams per kilometer, depending on the power source.

The basic construction of the body is made of welded aluminum profiles onto which components made of composite materials are mounted. This space-frame lightweight construction should limit the vehicle weight 4.20 meters in length to approx. 1100 kg. The vehicle's streamlined Coupé Berlinetta- type body rests on high 22-inch Vredestein wheels to provide a clear view and easy boarding. They are 155 mm narrow to keep rolling resistance low. The designer calls this combination the commuter , based on the small, closed wooden pleasure boats used by wealthy New Yorkers from Hampton to Manhattan to work in the 1920s . The roof glazing of the Mindset should optionally be equipped with solar panels .

criticism

At the request of the Tages-Anzeiger at the beginning of January 2008, ETH professor Lino Guzzella said the following about the mindset project: «The concept of the mindset as such is excellent, but it is neither new nor better than many competing products - including those from Switzerland. who do not move from the spot. Who should buy this thing, besides a few lovers? " In terms of safety, he stated that only very few people want to drive a car that has not passed all common crash tests with flying colors.

The project was viewed critically by Spirt Avert and Mindset Holding in its initial phase, especially from an investor's point of view. In an article published by the Tages-Anzeiger on January 8, 2008 , various parallels between Mindset and an earlier car project by the company owner Lorenzo Schmid were shown. Sun praised Lorenzo Schmid even during the New Economy boom around the turn of the century through the stock exchange listed investment company CommCept Trust AG with TWIKE to an electric vehicle of the future. The CommCept Trust AG share price plummeted a short time later as it had previously shot up. Schmid was accused of conflicts of interest in this regard because he had earned tens of millions of francs in success fees in his role as asset manager. At the same time, the car company SwissLEM AG , in which Schmid was significantly involved, granted Schmid's companies a million francs loan and invested another million of their starting capital in shares of companies whose papers Schmid had also put in the portfolio of the holding company. Instead of the targeted 10,000 vehicles per year, a total of just 700 units were sold, whereupon SwissLEM went bankrupt in the summer of 2002. CommCept Trust AG , in which Schmid lost his influence in June 2001 on the occasion of a turbulent shareholders' meeting, was taken over and dissolved under the burden of accumulated losses in the three-digit million range.

As with SwissLEM, Lorenzo Schmid sees himself confronted with both a cluster risk and a conflict of interest with Mindset . So Lorenzo Schmid is about his current consulting firm CommCept AG both majority owner of Mindset Holding and at the same time advisor to the fund CommCept Swiss Mid & Small Caps Fund , where the shares of Mindset Holding account for the largest position in the fund.

The bankruptcy of companies raises big questions. The high managerial wages continue to give cause for discussion, although society was on the verge of collapse. In particular, it seems critical that the holding through Mr. Lorenzo Schmid only filed for bankruptcy and published it after the court had previously dissolved the daughter who owned the Mindset project.

Web links

• mindset.ch ( Memento from November 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} HR excerpt from Küsnacht ( memento of the original from January 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ ^{a b} SonntagsZeitung , October 24, 2010, economic section p. 62.
3. ↑ Annual Report 2009 of Mindset Holding AG  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Half-yearly financial statements 2009 of Mindset Holding AG  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Media release from May 25, 2009 ( Memento of the original from October 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Mindset Holding AG, media release of May 9, 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ ^{a b} Half-year report 2010 of Mindset Holding AG  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Entry of “Mindset AG” in the Graubünden Commercial Register  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ VR-Zimmermann ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Cash Article Bankruptcy
11. ↑ Annual report 2007 of Spirt Avert AG  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ Stefan Anker: “We do something good for the world” , in Die Welt , July 26, 2008, page A6, Autowelt
13. ↑ ^{a b} Spirt Avert AG, media release of December 22, 2008  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
14. ↑ ^{a b} News on the Mindset Holding website ( memento of the original from April 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
15. ↑ Mindset Holding Annual Report 2008, pages 16/17 ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 5.2 MB) 
16. ↑ Spirt Avert AG, media release of November 28, 2008  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ↑ Hauke ​​Schrieber in Auto Bild : “ In the Mindset through the Metropolis ” , January 23, 2009
18. ↑ Birgit Priemer in Auto motor und sport : " Drivable prototype with range extender " , April 15, 2009
19. ↑ ^{a b c} The dream of the Swiss car of the future. ( Memento of March 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Tages-Anzeiger, January 8, 2008
20. ↑ 20 minutes, May 18, 2008
21. ↑ 20 minutes, June 3, 2008
22. ↑ Finanz und Wirtschaft, July 5, 2008 and September 27, 2008  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
23. ↑ MINDSET HOLDING AG announces the resignation of the management and the resignation of the Tumminelli board of directors. ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. February 14, 2010 
24. ↑ Invitation to the Extraordinary General Meeting on March 12, 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
25. ↑ Spirt Avert, media release of December 22, 2008  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
26. ↑ Tuner Xenatec helps the Maybach to shine and glory.
27. ↑ Mindset Holding, media release of November 7, 2010 ( Memento of the original of October 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
28. ↑ MINDSET HOLDING AG half-year financial statements H1 / 2011. ( Memento of the original from November 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
29. ↑ Focus Online: Elektroprojekt Mindset - Sexy Stromer, August 13, 2008
30. ↑ http://www.energieburo.ch/web/images/stories/medienmitteilungen/NZZ_080408.pdf
31. ↑ http://www.mindset.ch/ ( Memento of the original from July 31, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. there glossary, there commuter  
32. ↑ PUK report from the canton of Bern ( Memento from September 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
33. ↑ "If shareholders are only passengers without influence"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Finanz und Wirtschaft , June 4, 2008  
34. ↑ Monthly report as of July 30, 2009 of the CommCept Swiss Mid & Small Caps Fund  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 157 kB)  
35. ↑ Monthly report as of January 28, 2010 of the CommCept Swiss Mid & Small Caps Fund  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 262 kB)  
36. ↑ Cash forum