THE DISTRICT COURT OF NOORD-HOLLAND GRANTS SUSPENSION OF PAYMENT TO THE DUTCH BRANCH OF DE KEIZER INTERNATIONAL

The family-owned business specialising in system integration for superyachts has been forced to enter suspension of payment.

The District Court of Noord-Holland granted suspension of payment to the Dutch companies of De Keizer International: De Keizer International B.V. and De Keizer Marine Engineering B.V.

De Keizer International is a global supplier of system integration for yachts. With offices in The Netherlands, France, Spain and The United States. The company, founded in 1965, found itself obliged to request for suspension of payment since the businesses expected that financial obligations could not be met within the short-term.

De Keizer International, through its highly specialised knowledge in electrotechnical and IT-services on yachts, ranging from lightning to generators developed a unique position on the market of yacht construction.

De Keizer International clients globally were looked after from its headquarters in Zaandam (the Netherlands) and its twelve other branches in the Netherlands, France, Spain and the United States.

Sjoerd de Keizer and Niels de Keizer acquired the company 14 years ago from their father, who acquired it from his father before that. The brothers’ De Keizer were (respectively) 24 and 22 years old when they acquired the company. In the years after the company experienced substantial growth: from 100 employees in 2008 to 450 employees as of now.

The current liquidity problems are a result of multiple factors: Firstly the exponential growth ambitions of the Keizer International meant that the business has become subject to inefficiencies in its processes and agreements with clients. Orders in the yachting industry are placed, on average, four years in advance.

De Keizer International experienced a changing demand by its customers which contributed to the current situation. In addition to that, the current crisis as a result of the Covid-19 virus had immediate consequences for its branches in Spain, France and the United States, where their respective activities were slowed down substantially.

Sjoerd de Keizer (CEO De Keizer International) stated:  “We have excelled in our ventures and we are proud of that. We are a true family-owned business, and one of the reasons we have been able to grow substantially is that we have taken care of our employees and they have taken care of us in return. The current reality is hard to stomach and a hard blow to us all. We have put everything to work to meet the expectations of our customers, but we have arrived at a point where this is not sustainable anymore.”

The administrators, Mr. R. Mulder LLM (Pot Jonker Advocaten) and Mr. A Claus LLM (Haut Legal & Tax) are in deliberation with interested parties with respect to the possible continuation of the activities of De Keizer International.  Contact mulder@potjonker.nl

For any query feel free to contact us