The ailing agricultural group BayWa, which has a significant stake in warehouse parent Raiffeisen Ware Austria (RWA) in Austria, will receive a further financial injection of half a billion euros and will have until the end of the year to put its finances on a healthy footing. The most important creditor banks made a further 500 million euros available in bridging loans by the end of December, BayWa announced on Sunday evening in Munich.
The banks also extended the standstill agreement not to call the existing loans due by three months, also until the end of the year. “This would make it possible to secure the financing of BayWa AG until the end of 2024 and create the basis for a subsequent long-term financing solution by the end of 2027,” the statement said. The key points for this would still be negotiated with the banks and the owners, among others.
The banks and major shareholders had only supported BayWa, which was in debt by more than 5 billion euros, with a total of 547 million euros in mid-August. At that time, debt and equity investors shared the burden, but this time the banks are responsible alone.
It became apparent that the company, which had run into difficulties due to rising interest rates and the sluggish business of the wind and solar project subsidiary BayWa re, would need more money in the short term. The grain harvest that BayWa, as an agricultural dealer, buys from farmers in the fall costs money before it can be resold.
The signatures of the most important lenders on the new bridging loan and the extended standstill agreement are expected in the next few days, the company said.
BayWa presented its delayed half-year report on Friday. Write-downs of 222 million euros on BayWa re and other divisions have driven them deep into the red. The net loss was 290.5 million euros.
BayWa’s largest shareholder is an investment company of the Bavarian Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken. The second largest shareholder is the Austrian Raiffeisen Agrar Invest AG, whose owners in turn are RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria Handel und Vermögensverwaltung eGen and Raiffeisen Agrar Holding GmbH of Leipnik-Lundenburger Invest Beteiligungs (LLI).
