Geelong, Australia, May 20, 2026, 19:54 (AEST)
- Creditors have signed off on a rescue deal that gives control of Carbon Revolution to OIC and wipes out the senior secured debt.
- The deal lets the Geelong wheelmaker keep running, with around 350 jobs still at the company.
- Public shareholders of the old parent are left out, as Carbon Revolution plc is set to be wound up in Ireland.
Carbon Revolution is out of voluntary administration as a private firm now led by OIC, the US investment group that was its main secured lender. Creditors approved a recap plan for the Geelong carbon-fibre wheel maker. The company said it has no senior secured debt after the restructure, so loans with first claim on assets are gone.
Carbon Revolution’s future is in focus after administrators from McGrathNicol were called in on March 26. The company is one of just a handful of Australian advanced automotive parts makers with sales to global carmakers. Its collapse would have hit the supply chain linked to Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds campus. Carbon Revolution kept operating during administration.
This is also a major overhaul for the capital structure. According to a U.S. securities filing, Carbon Revolution plc, the previous listed parent, now holds no equity in its Australian units and is set for an orderly liquidation under Irish law.
The company went through a rescue using a deed of company arrangement, or DOCA. This is a binding deal between a company and its creditors about what happens to the company after it goes into administration. ASIC says a DOCA is normally set up after voluntary administration and is often used to keep a business running, give creditors better returns, or both.
Carbon Revolution went into administration after taking big losses and seeing falling demand. Drive, quoting administrator papers, said the company carried debts of about A$345.5 million and lost A$347 million in the past four years. Early findings said the group likely became insolvent in early December 2025.
OIC, which the Geelong Advertiser said was owed more than A$230 million, put up its plan early in the administration. Creditors approved it after McGrathNicol supported the proposal.
Chief Executive Donald Hampton Jr said Carbon Revolution’s “significantly deleveraged balance sheet” is giving the company more ability to focus on execution. He said the company now operates from a “far stronger foundation.” Hampton said there is still work to do. Carbon Revolution
Chris Leary, investment partner and infrastructure equity head at OIC, cited the “resilience and commitment” of the Carbon Revolution team. He said carmakers’ push for efficiency, durability, and lightweighting continues to support Carbon Revolution’s tech. Carbon Revolution
Carbon Revolution says it produces carbon-fibre wheels used in high-end cars, with Ford, Ferrari, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Renault and Lamborghini among its program partners. They say sales have topped 100,000 wheels and 18 programs are in place with six global manufacturers.
The competitive environment is tough. Carbon Revolution is still a specialist in the high-performance wheel market, facing bigger players like Enkei, Ronal, and BBS, which all have more scale in the sector. Automakers keep watching cost and volume changes.
But the fix doesn’t cover all the losses. The Geelong Advertiser said trade creditors look set to get under 50 cents in the dollar. Drive reported that administrators and directors blamed Australia’s high-cost manufacturing, long distance from markets, cancelled programs and softer EV demand for the collapse.
Carbon Revolution moved from the ASX, where it listed in 2019, to Nasdaq in 2023, aiming for bigger funding options. It was dropped from the Nasdaq earlier this year after missing the exchange’s requirements. What’s left is a smaller, private business now run by lenders, while the previous public entity will be liquidated.
