The battery manufacturer is under great pressure to restructure.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich The Swabian battery manufacturer Varta has to save drastically under pressure from the banks and also wants to cut jobs. The major Austrian shareholder Michael Tojner is ready to support the company from Ellwangen with 50 million euros, as Varta announced on Monday.
The creditor banks had requested a restructuring report to check the company’s viability. The auditors from KPMG came to the conclusion that Varta could be restructured and had “clear growth prospects”. The prerequisite for this, however, are cost reductions in procurement, internal processes and personnel as well as a broadening of the customer base – and a quick injection of capital. Varta employs 4700 people.
There is no agreement with the banks, but the talks are well advanced, the company said. It is the prerequisite for the majority shareholder Tojner (55 percent) to inject 50 million euros in fresh capital with his Montana Tech Components.
With the proceeds from the sale of 4.04 million new shares to Tojner, Varta wants to invest “specifically in important fields of innovation”, especially in the energy storage business. The data shows a minimum price of 12.37 euros. However, the actual issue price will not be significantly below the market price. Varta closed at EUR 28.96 on Friday. On Monday morning, the share collapsed by 11.2 percent to 25.71 euros.
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Varta had had to lower its forecasts several times in the past year. Due to the falling demand for button cells for headphones – such as Apple’s “AirPods” – around 500 employees in Nördlingen have been on short-time work since December. Plans to build a new factory for battery cells for electric cars were stopped due to a lack of purchase commitments.
“The aim of further restructuring measures is to return to a stable growth path,” said the statement on Monday. Above all, the business with micro batteries, button cells and household batteries must become more profitable. Personnel measures are also planned, which are now being discussed with the works council.
“With the restructuring concept presented, we are maintaining the balance between necessary restructuring measures and the development of our growth potential,” said the new CEO, Markus Hackstein. Chairman of the Supervisory Board Tojner explained that the restructuring was “not easy, but a necessary way to be able to return to the road to success”.
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