Renovation
Baywa plans conversion without danger for shareholders
The Baywa, groaned under billions of billions, must be renovated. This includes longer terms for loans – but not all creditors play along.
The highly indebted Munich agricultural and building material group Baywa wants to further advance the renovation with the help of the Restructuring Act after the failed agreement with a large creditor. The company will start the corresponding procedure at the Munich District Court, as the board announced. However, a capital cut or the shareholders are not planned. According to BayWa, suppliers, customers, workforce and subsidiaries are also not affected.
Company calms shareholders
The restructuring law known under the abbreviation “Starug” is intended to help crisis companies to renovate themselves without insolvency proceedings. However, the law is feared by shareholders, because there is the opportunity to put their capital on zero and to put out the shareholders.
However, this is not the case with the BayWA, as can be seen in the announcement: “A capital reduction and other corporate law measures are not planned.” It should also remain with the already announced capital increase with the issue of new shares for around 150 million euros, now as part of the Starug procedure. Baywa chief renovation Michael Baur called this a “microsurgical intervention” and “Starug-Light approach”.
Credit times must be extended
Baywa’s restructuring procedure is therefore mainly about extending the loan terms. Among other things, a consortial loan would have expired in September this year with a framework of up to two billion euros.
With most of its creditors, the company has agreed on a renovation schedule including a financing concept by 2027. “A few financial creditors have not yet agreed, so that the company is currently no longer assuming to persuade these individual creditor to voluntary approval,” it said.
Without consent to reluctant creditors
The Starug procedure should now make it possible to implement the renovation and financing concept without the consent of these creditors. “It is a last necessary step to secure the renovation frame by the end of 2027,” said Baur. According to information from consultant circles, it is essentially a great creditor who did not want to agree.
According to the BayWA, the restructuring process should also remain with the original renovation schedule, with the conclusion of a legally binding agreement by the end of April at the latest. However, the publication of the annual record 2024 that was previously planned for the end of March will be delayed, and the BayWA may also move its general meeting.
Over five billion euros in financial debt
At the end of the third quarter, the group was in debt at almost 5.3 billion euros from its creditors’ banks, in the height of a rapid expansion on pump in the past decade. The Baywa, which emerged from the cooperative movement, is the largest German agricultural dealer. The group plays an important role in agriculture and food supply in the south and east of Germany. In addition, the 101 -year -old company is active in the business areas of construction and energy as a service provider and dealer.
As part of the renovation, the BayWa now wants to reduce itself again, the essential corporate participations abroad are to be sold. In addition, the workforce in Germany is facing a large extent: 1,300 of the 8,000 full-time positions of the parent company Baywa AG are to be deleted, which corresponds to 16 percent of the group’s full-time jobs in Germany.
dpa
Source: Stern
