High debt, high deficit
Agricultural trader Baywa writes a loss of 640 million euros
The conglomerate Baywa, which is important for agriculture and food supply, is in need of restructuring – and the effects of the restructuring have initially increased the problems.
The Baywa Group, which has become a restructuring case, is in a bad position after the first nine months of this year: the net loss of the 101-year-old traditional Munich company amounted to almost 641 million euros during the period, as Baywa announced. That was more than six times the loss for the whole of 2023. The high deficit was not only due to poor business, but also to write-offs in the first half of the year. The board did not provide an earnings forecast for this year.
Sales fell by almost 12 percent to 16 billion euros from the beginning of January to the end of September. Baywa, which emerged from the cooperative movement, is the largest German agricultural trader and is important for agriculture and food supply, especially in the south and east of Germany. Other business areas include renewable energies and construction. However, Baywa management still assumes that a “sustainable restructuring” is possible and that the group should be healthy by 2027.
The basis will be a renovation report, the final version of which should be available in December. It is already known that the experts will recommend extensive cost-cutting measures and sales of individual business areas. For the final quarter, the Baywa board of directors, led by Michael Baur, a reorganizer brought in from management consultancy Alix Partners, expects “more stability” in the individual business areas, as it said in the quarterly statement.
dpa
Source: Stern
