Renovation concept agreed
First big step in the Baywa rescue
In the summer, Germany’s leading agricultural trader came to the brink of insolvency. The price of salvation is shrinkage.
The heavily indebted Munich conglomerate Baywa is about to take the first big step towards the hoped-for financial recovery: The company has agreed with the most important creditor banks and the two main shareholders on the detailed roadmap for the restructuring up to 2027. Baywa published a mandatory stock exchange announcement that night. The restructuring agreement should be legally binding by the end of April 2025 at the latest, including a restructuring of the financing.
Capital increase of over 150 million euros
An essential part of the restructuring concept is the issue of new shares in the form of a cash capital increase with subscription rights for the existing Baywa shareholders in the amount of 150 million euros. The details are expected to be finalized in the first quarter of the new year.
Large shareholding in Austria is sold
In addition, the expected downsizing of Baywa begins: In Austria, the group wants to sell its almost 48 percent stake in Raiffeisen Ware Austria (RWA) and another share package for 176 million euros by the end of March. The associated contract has already been signed, but antitrust approval is still pending.
Baywa is, among other things, the largest German agricultural trader; the group plays an important role in agriculture and food supply in the south and east of Germany. The company is burdened with billions of dollars in debt, the legacy of rapid expansion on credit over the past decade.
At the beginning of December, Baywa announced job cuts on a larger scale: 1,300 of the 8,000 full-time positions in the parent company Baywa AG are to be eliminated, which mathematically corresponds to 16 percent of the full-time jobs.
dpa
Source: Stern
