Team Lotus purchases Caterham

Caterham is well-known for building lightweight sports cars, most notably the Seven, which the company bought the rights to from Lotus founder Colin Chapman in 1973, and has been making ever since. Team Lotus purchased Caterham for an undisclosed sum, from a shareholder group led by Corven Ventures.

The Malaysian bosses of Team Lotus, Tony Fernandes, Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin, said in a statement that the company plans to expand Caterham’s profile and product family while also continuing the development of the Seven.

“Caterham Cars has remained wholly faithful to Colin Chapman’s philosophy of ‘less is more’, and the DNA of the original Seven can still be traced to the newest additions to Caterham’s product offering," said Tony Fernandes, and added, “It is already a successful business with sales across Europe, Japan, Australia and the Middle East, and under the guidance of the existing management team, we now have all the ingredients and the launch pad to further evolve that spirit and take Caterham to new exciting horizons with innovative products and greater global brand exposure.”

Team Lotus said that Caterham will be led by the company’s existing management team, headed up by Caterham Cars Managing Director, Ansar Ali, who said, “Caterham Cars is starting an exciting and hugely important chapter, so it’s entirely fitting that we celebrate our opportunity to take Colin Chapman’s ‘less is more’ philosophy global, with this special car.”