eoThe two ex-jurors from the “Lion’s Den” Georg Kofler (left) and Ralf Dümmel posed with the stock market bull in 2021. Today her company The Social Chain AG announced that it would file for insolvency.
(Photo: social chain ag/ angelika zinzow, PR)
Dusseldorf, Berlin The online trading company The Social Chain AG wants to apply for the opening of insolvency proceedings. The Berlin company announced this on Monday via an ad hoc announcement. After a thorough examination, the Executive Board came to the conclusion that “there is no longer a positive forecast for the company to continue as a going concern”. The CEO Georg Kofler is resigning from his office.
The Management Board is preparing an application for self-administration for the company at the responsible insolvency court, as it considers the relevant prerequisites to be given. In contrast to a normal insolvency, the management remains on board with self-administration, but is assigned a so-called administrator. The lawyer oversees management decisions and company expenses.
A planned capital increase through the issue of 4.5 million new shares had previously failed. Since an important investor has not met its payment obligations and talks about the provision of further funds have failed, there is now “no longer a sufficient probability” that the “short-term financial needs of the company can be covered,” said Social Chain.
The company became known to a broader public through the TV format “Die Höhle der Löwen”. In the show, a prominent jury evaluates the business ideas of founders. The leading figures at Social Chain were also part of this jury: ex-Pro-Sieben CEO Georg Kofler (65) and his business partner Ralf Dümmel (56).
The e-commerce company, with its focus on social media and marketing, also benefited from the hype surrounding the show. Because of the TV presence, some observers spoke of the “lion’s share” or even of a new “people’s share”. In the meantime, Social Chain was worth more than half a billion euros on the stock exchange. The share price was 54 euros in November 2021.
Bafin complains about incorrect bookings at The Social Chain
Then it went steeply downhill, the papers were last traded for around two euros. On July 13, the German financial regulator Bafin complained about incorrect entries of almost 60 million euros in the 2021 consolidated financial statements. In the cash flow statement, the public limited company had shown payments from the sale of shares and a 50 million euro loan as cash flow from operating activities.
On the night of the same day, the company announced that the planned capital increase was on the brink. Management is examining “the effects” and “all possible options,” it said in a statement.
When the Handelsblatt wanted to know whether the financing was secured without a capital increase, a spokeswoman replied: “The review is ongoing. Any results would first have to be communicated in the manner prescribed by law.”
More: Capital increase at Social Chain is on the brink