The turbulence at the German agricultural, construction and energy group BayWa is spreading. The heavily indebted company has apparently commissioned a restructuring report under pressure from creditor banks. BayWa speaks of a “tense financing situation”. The aim of the report is a positive forecast for continued operations so that loans can be extended. BayWa has also hired a restructuring consultant. “It is therefore clear that the situation is significantly more critical than previously assumed,” said the German Association for the Protection of Securities Holders (DSW).
BayWa CEO Marcus Pöllinger is trying to correct the debt-financed expansion course pursued by his predecessor Klaus Maria Lutz. The group had 5.5 billion euros in debt at the end of 2023. Interest burdens and problems in solar trading pushed BayWa into the red for the first time last year. The sale of the solar division has not yet come to fruition. BayWa’s largest creditors are DZ Bank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and Unicredit.
The share price of BayWa, in which the Austrian Raiffeisen Agrar Invest holds a 28.1 percent stake, fell by around a third on Monday. BayWa is a 50 percent owner of RWA (Raiffeisen Ware Austria), which operates in conjunction with the warehouses. RWA boss Reinhard Wolf told the OÖN last week that the developments at BayWa had “no impact on us.”
