Refurbishment: Baywa rescue will take longer than planned

The renovation of the Baywa suffering from billions of billions is expected to take one year longer than planned. Instead of the end of 2027, the recovery of the over 100 year old Munich mixed group should not be completed until the end of 2028, as the company announced. This spring, both the publication of the 2024 annual balance sheet and the Annual General Meeting will be postponed. According to the BayWa chiefs, the positive forecast for the continuation of the group does not suffer.

Problem daughter Baywa Re

The cause lies with the green electricity daughter Baywa Re operated with the Swiss investor Energy Infrastructure Partners (EIP), on which, according to the half -year balance sheet alone, debts of over 4 billion euros are buried. EIP will essentially carry out a capital increase alone in order to put the Baywa re back on more stable financial feet. This will reduce the previous majority share of the parent company Baywa AG from 51 to 35 percent. Baywa AG also dispenses with 350 million euros in shareholder loans that it had granted the daughter.

Agencing is making progress, but timetable is delayed

The positive effect for Baywa AG is that the debt is making ahead: the Baywa re – and thus also its liabilities – will no longer be booked in the balance sheet of the parent company. On the other hand, the equity of the BayWa mother also shrinks so much that a general meeting must be convened due to loss of half of the share capital, as it says in the statement.

This in turn confuses the original renovation schedule. Since a major creditor of the group does not want to agree to the renovation plan, the BayWa plans to initiate a procedure under the Restructuring Act. The law known under the abbreviation “Starug” is intended to help crisis companies to renovate themselves without bankruptcy proceedings. But there is also the possibility of pretending to resist individual creditors. Since the renovation plan has to be adjusted, according to BayWA, the initiation of the Starug procedure will also be delayed.

High losses last year

In the first nine months of 2024, the BayWa group had written almost 641 million euros in net loss. The cause of the crisis is an unsuccessful expansion to credit in the past decade. This is now to be reversed and sold foreign participations bought on Pump. The workforce also pays the prize: At the beginning of December, the BayWa job cuts announced on a large scale. Of the 8,000 full-time positions of the parent company Baywa AG, 1,300 are to be deleted, which corresponds to 16 percent of the group’s full-time workstations in Germany. Baywa, which emerged from the cooperative movement, is the largest German agricultural dealer and plays an important role in agriculture and food supply in the south and east of Germany.