15.11.2024, 11:5415.11.2024, 13:40
At around 12.35 p.m. the titles fell by 62 percent to 45 centimes. They were suspended from trading shortly after 10 a.m. A year ago the shares cost almost 78 francs – almost a total loss if you look at the current price. The market capitalization is currently just under 15 million.
The days of the ailing solar company appear to be numbered. With the termination of the largest client Desri, the desired financial restructuring and thus the continued existence of the company are at acute risk. The framework agreement was terminated immediately, as the company announced on Friday.
Due to the termination, Meyer Burger is now practically at an end. “The Company currently believes that, regardless of the validity of such termination, its well-advanced financial restructuring efforts are likely to be adversely affected.”according to the statement.
And if this financial restructuring fails, the business would probably no longer be able to continue. Before further information is published, Meyer Burger wants to analyze the situation.
Long suffering
This is the end of a long ordeal, as Meyer Burger has been fighting for survival for a while. The solar technology company urgently needs money in order to push ahead with the planned relocation of activities to the USA and thus be able to survive at all. In the first half of 2024, the group was once again deeply in the red.
“We have a financing gap in the high double-digit million range and have to close it.”said Franz Richter, who recently became CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors, just around two weeks ago. In order to get the money needed, negotiations were started with the creditors. Meanwhile, Richter ruled out a capital increase. Analysts, however, assumed an even larger capital requirement in the range of 100 to 120 million francs.
Meyer Burger has been struggling for a long time with cheap competition from China and overcapacity in the European solar market. In the first half of the year, the sale of solar modules from the warehouse at dumping prices caused losses. In addition, there were depreciation and costs in addition to the stalled expansion of US production.
Construction of new production stopped due to lack of funds
In September, Meyer Burger had to stop construction of a solar cell production facility in Colorado Springs because there was a lack of money. The cells should continue to be produced in Thalheim, Germany, and installed into solar modules in Goodyear in the US state of Arizona. It is now more than doubtful whether this will continue to be the case.
How bad the company is doing was shown by the half-yearly report at the end of October. Sales almost halved to 49 million francs. This resulted in an operating loss that was more than twice as high and a net loss of over 300 million francs.
Precarious financial situation
Meyer Burger’s financial situation is correspondingly precarious: at the end of September there was only a good 80 million francs left in its cash register. The sale of assets from the now closed module production in Freiberg, Germany, and further sales of products from the warehouse should give the group some breathing room.
The company was founded in 1953 by Hans Meyer and Willy Burger, after whom the company is still named today. At the beginning, the company focused on watch jewel making machines. In 1970, the company entered the business of silicon wafer cutting machines for the semiconductor industry.
The company entered the photovoltaic industry in the early 1980s, and in 2020 the company announced one of many strategy changes and focused entirely on the business as an equipment supplier to the manufacturer of solar cells and modules. For this purpose, factories from insolvent solar manufacturers in Germany were also purchased. But the business never really took off.
rbu/ome with material from AWP and SDA
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