The insolvent auto parts supplier Borgers is saved. Founded in 1866 in Bocholt, North Rhine-Westphalia, the company with its 4,500 employees is being sold to Swiss competitor Autoneum for 117 million euros. Both sides announced this on Monday.
Borgers was one of the biggest bankruptcies of the past year Germany. Big car manufacturers like Volkswagenwho were supplied by Borgers with linings, damping and insulation made of natural fibers and plastics for the interior, engine and trunk had to worry about supplies because of the empty coffers at Borgers at times. The proceeds from the sale will mainly go to the creditor banks Commerzbank, to which large parts of the family company’s assets were pledged.
Autoneum takes over practically all 4500 employees, 1800 of them in Germany. The foreign subsidiaries in France, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Czech Republic, Great Britain and the USA could be kept out of bankruptcy. “Despite a complex situation, we found an economically reasonable solution (…) within just under three months, which opens up sustainable perspectives for the group,” said insolvency administrator Frank Kebekus (58). For the takeover of a joint venture in China approval is still pending.
The parts supplied by Borgers will probably become more expensive for car manufacturers: Autoneum explained in the Swiss city of Winterthur that new prices and delivery conditions had already been agreed with Borgers customers in advance. “These ensure sustainable profitability and the further development of product and process technologies in both the short and long term.” The two companies complemented each other well, with only a quarter of the products overlapping.
Two major Autoneum shareholders support capital increase
Autoneum was spun off from mechanical engineering company Rieter Holding twelve years ago and has been listed on the Zurich Stock Exchange ever since. The company sees itself as the world market leader in acoustic and thermal solutions for vehicles and is valued at around CHF 500 million (EUR 507 million). Autoneum intends to finance the takeover with a capital increase of CHF 100 million. The two major shareholders, the billionaire Martin Pieper (Artemis) and Peter Spuhler (64), chairman of the board of directors of the railway technology group Stadler Rail, want to go along with it. Autoneum boss Matthias Holzammer (57) spoke of “a coherent and convincing industrial logic”.
Borgers had been considered a restructuring case for years and had slipped even deeper into the red as a result of the Corona crisis. A sale before bankruptcy failed due to a dispute between the car manufacturers and the banks. In 2021, the turnover of the automotive division was 610 million euros. In the past year it rose to 710 million euros.
The mechanical engineering division had already been sold to the US group Matthews in June 2022 for 45 million dollars (43 million euros). It accounted for around a fifth of sales.