Thor Aage Pedersen sold both a Bugatti and a luxury apartment – now his company is also bankrupt
Brunbjørn as was declared bankrupt by the owners this week. The company, which is engaged in electrical installation and broadband development in the Lillehammer area, has long been characterized by internal turmoil and threats of legal action, including against the former board. .
Brunbjørn had 40 employees last year, who are now losing their jobs. In 2021, the company achieved a turnover of NOK 204 million, a pre-tax profit of almost NOK 16 million and assets of NOK 75 million.
Thor Aage Pedersen. (Photo: Private)
Viddas as Thor Aage Pedersen is the main owner of Brunbjørn with 42% of the shares. Pedersen told DN in early November that he hoped to get NOK 20 million from Brunbjørn by diluting the company’s shares.
Pedersen now says that in his time he invested NOK four to five million in equity in Brunbjørn, but the company was priced higher before it all went wrong. He said he believes there are still values in the bankruptcy estate.
The administrator, lawyer Nils Holger Kofoed at Ro Sommernes, says there is a lot of documentation to familiarize yourself with.
– There’s a lot here. Major conflicts and challenges between shareholders in the long term, Kofoed said.
He said the company has significant outstanding claims, but also customers who believe they have counterclaims. Additionally, the bank holds a lien on many of the company’s properties and inventory, and a conversation is underway to get the big picture.
– The activity is completely suspended, but we need time to find out if there is any value left in the company, said Kofoed.
Futen took out a mortgage on an apartment
The tax authorities also seized the lien on Thor Aage Pedersen’s penthouse in Sandvika in Bærum, demanding NOK 7.6 million.
Pedersen said that the apartment will be sold next week and he is confident that it will quickly sell for more than NOK 15 million.
He admitted that he and the auditor made a mistake, and he did not dispute the tax claim.
– I feel in control now and I’m not stressing about it. The tax is paid when the apartment is sold, Pedersen said.
Thor Aage Pedersen’s penthouse here at Bjørnegårdsvingen 11 in Sandvika is being sold subject to tax requirements. (Photo: Mikaela Berg)
Pedersen bought the flat new in December last year for NOK 13.75 million, and says he has already made several upgrades. The apartment has, among other things, a terrace of more than one hundred square meters.
Lightning fast sports car for sale
Meanwhile, Pedersen tried to sell his Bugatti sports car for NOK 40 million within a month.
At the end of last year, at the same time he bought the apartment, he bought the car, a Bugatti Chiron for NOK 25 million, the only one of its kind in Norway. The car is now in Groruddalen in Oslo and sold for NOK 40 million, by far the most expensive car in Finland.
Thor Aage Pedersen is selling his Bugatti Chiron. It is the most expensive car in Finland. (Photo: fax from Finn.no)
“I can’t insure that damn car in Norway,” Pedersen told DN.
He explained this by saying, among other things, that he was a Cypriot citizen. The car has mostly been in the garage of friend and rally driver Henning Solberg in Spydeberg in Østfold since he bought it. The car was driven on duty free plates, as Pedersen could not register the car in Norway.
Since it was a car produced in very limited numbers, Pedersen was hoping to get a higher price than he himself paid.
Open to lack of money
Pedersen is from Tana and he originally enriched himself in the reindeer slaughterhouses of Finnmark. He used to say that he now lives mainly from stock trading and the now bankrupt Brunbjørn company.
Pedersen did not hide that he needed money after, among other things, paying money for Bugatti. He explained this, among other things, by the fact that banks would not give him loans after negative press reports on the sale of black crab. Pedersen said he never had anything to do with the sale of black crab and was never prosecuted or convicted for it.
– I’m having a little trouble in terms of liquidity, and I can’t manage to get a loan from the bank. So now I also have to start with some car sales, Pedersen told DN last month.
The situation worsened.
“Everything was sold at the right price,” Pedersen said today.
Although Pedersen is said to have moved to Cyprus, which he says is for tax reasons, he mostly pays taxes in Norway. In recent years, he has explained this by saying that the corona virus has made it impossible to travel from Norway, and therefore he is liable for tax here.
In 2021, Pedersen had a taxable income of NOK 10.3 million and paid around NOK four million in taxes, and a fortune of almost NOK 94 million. The wealth continued to decrease by NOK 164 million in 2016.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We want you to share our cases using links, which lead directly to our pages. Copying or other forms of use of all or part of the content may only occur with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms see here.
