Brightstar Corp. to withdraw from the Swedish Market due to unfair and discriminatory treatment by the Swedish Tax Agency

24 May, 2021 - Brightstar Corp., the global leader in end-to-end solutions for mobile device lifecycle management, announces that it has reluctantly decided to withdraw from the Swedish market after managing a successful presence there for more than 45 years.

The Group intends to commence a restructuring of its Swedish subsidiary and wind down its operations in the country over the coming weeks. This follows the decision by the Swedish Tax Agency to retrospectively disallow a legitimate VAT reclaim, a decision that the Group believes is both unwarranted and unfair, and leaves Brightstar Sweden facing a disputed liability of more than SEK 295m (USD $35m). Brightstar Sweden will appeal the latest ruling regarding the deferral of payment to the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court.

Brightstar Sweden will do what it can to protect its creditors, suppliers, customers and employees through this process but feels it has been left with no alternative following an unprecedented decision by the Swedish Tax Agency and also the Swedish courts not to allow the Company to defer payment while it pursues an appeal against the original ruling.

Brightstar believes it has a fiduciary duty to shareholders and its wider group of stakeholders to protect the business from this onerous demand and unreasonable costs. As a result of taking these steps, Brightstar’s international operations will be wholly unaffected by events in Sweden.

Rod Millar, Chief Executive Officer of Brightstar Corp., said: “We have not taken this decision lightly, but we feel we have no alternative following the discriminatory treatment that Brightstar has suffered at the hands of the Swedish authorities. Brightstar has done nothing wrong and has acted in good faith throughout.”

“As a result, we feel that we cannot conduct business in Sweden as we do not trust receiving a fair treatment by the authorities and courts, despite a successful track record in the country for almost half a century. Brightstar Sweden intends to wind down its businesses in an orderly manner; Brightstar Sweden will do what it can to protect creditors, suppliers, customers and employees, whilst at the same time the decisions will be appealed in the Swedish Courts. Brightstar’s global operations will be unaffected by this move and for them it is business as usual.”

Enquiries:

Hallvarsson & Halvarsson

Theo Martins                                                                 +46 708 935 000                 theo.martins@halvarsson.se

Maitland/amo                                                                                   

Neil Bennett                                                                   +44 207 379 5151               nbennett@maitland.co.uk