“I see very good prospects of being soon able to sell Gehrlicher Solar America Corporation to an investor,” said preliminary administrator Oliver Schartl of the Munich law firm Müller-Heydenreich Beutler & Kollegen.
According to Schartl, concurrently solar projects of the Italian and Spanish subsidiaries and existing project rights are being offered on the market by M&A consultants.
He emphasized that the foreign independent subsidiaries are working soundly and are not affected directly by the filing.
For Gehrlicher Solar AG, Schartl and his team and the company’s management are considering at present the possibilities of a bankruptcy reorganization plan with the involvement of an investor in order to retain major parts of Gehrlicher into the future.
Meanwhile, the preliminary administrator has, in close cooperation with the preliminary creditors’ committee, succeeded in stabilizing the business and in securing the wages and salaries of the employees by means of a bridging financing of the state bankruptcy wages and salaries support.
“All employees will be paid up to the end of September” Schartl said.
“The banks have approved an estate loan of several millions Euros so that sites on which Gehrlicher Solar AG solar parks are under construction, mainly in Romania, can be completed on schedule,” he continued.
In Rumania alone, the company has five projects in progress with a volume of more than €11 million.
The implementation of the company’s reorganization already begun prior to the filing will continue, according to the preliminary administrator, in order that the position of Gehrlicher Solar AG on the market is improved.
“I assume that major parts of Gehrlicher Solar AG can continue” Schartl said. The company has the potential for long-term success in the very competitive industry. “From the long-term perspective, the future prospects for photovoltaic are very good worldwide. The falling manufacturing costs of recent years make solar energy internationally increasingly competitive compared to conventional energy forms”, Schartl said.
With the introduction of anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese solar modules and resulting deterioration in market conditions in Europe, Gehrlicher Solar AG no longer saw itself in a position to satisfy the conditions of the loan agreement and, on 5 July 2013, filed for preliminary reorganization proceedings at the Munich Local Court.
The company’s application was a direct reaction to the banks’ notice of their intention to call in the loans.
“We view the compromise in the EU trade dispute with China as positive to the extent that it will at least restore certain stability to the market. Basically, however, the deal does not benefit anyone because it still destroys jobs throughout the whole PV value chain”, said Richard von Hehn, Management Board member of Gehrlicher Solar AG who is, inter alia, responsible for worldwide purchasing and as Chief Operating Officer (COO) concentrates on the European business.
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