German solar group Conergy files for bankruptcy
05 Jul 2013
German solar group Conergy AG today filed for bankruptcy, after lenders refused to bail out the solar panel maker - once largest solar company in Germany.
With the bankruptcy filing, Conergy becomes the latest solar company to go bust in the backdrop of global overcapacity and plunging prices.
The news comes three months after diversified German engineering giant Bosch exited the solar energy business, while another large player, Bonn-based SolarWorld is also close to ruins.
Japanese business daily Nikkei yesterday reported that electronics firm Panasonic plans to close down its only European solar cell plant in March 2014 and dismiss around 500 workers (See: Panasonic to exit solar cell production in Europe).
Other German solar panel manufacturers that had recently filed for bankruptcy include Q-Cells and Solon.
Hamburg-based Conergy, which has been for long suffering from the German solar industry crisis, filed for bankruptcy at the Hamburg district court after payment from a large-scale project got delayed and it failed to bridge a financial gap, with lenders rejecting an Asian investor's restructuring plans.
According to Reuters, Conergy had been in talks with its 10 creditors on a restructuring deal, which involved an unidentified Asian investor taking a large stake in the company. The deal would have seen the investor taking a €261.5 million ($338 million) syndicated loan from a consortium of 10 banks - led by Commerzbank, and pumping in €50 million of equity.
''In the past 15 months we presented to our lenders two concrete proposals for a strategic investor to enter the company, and we greatly regret that in no case they were able to agree on short-term implementation,'' Philip Comberg, CEO of Conergy said in a statement.
Conergy, which was valued at €2.2 billion just six years ago, is today worth only €81 million.
The company generated around €473 million ($609 million) and posted an operating loss of €83 million last year. In early morning trading today, its stock plunged by nearly 70 per cent to around €0.12 a share
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