A restructuring plan for Varta that was painful for shareholders caused the battery company’s shares to collapse by more than 80 percent on Monday. The share price fell to 0.76 euros; Most recently, the shares were still around 50 percent in the red at 1.95 euros.
The shareholders are threatened with a total loss. Initially, a haircut and the extension of loans should reduce the current liabilities from almost half a billion euros to 200 million euros in order to put the company in a better financial position again. In addition, however, the share capital of Varta AG is to be reduced to zero euros. The effect: The current shareholders leave without compensation and the group loses its stock market listing.
Immediately following the capital cut, a company (MT InvestCo) controlled by Varta majority owner Michael Tojner (58) and an investment company in the sports car manufacturer Porsche are to join in as new shareholders, each with 30 million euros. Tojner has been investing in Varta since 2007 played a central role in the rise and fall of the company.
The fear of a total failure had already caused the share price to plummet in July. Within a few days it had gone from a good 10 euros to 1.50 euros. A vague hope that perhaps things wouldn’t be so bad after all led to a small recovery. But that’s over now.
Varta was listed on the stock exchange in 2017 at 17.50 euros per share and was in demand for a long time. At the beginning of 2021, the price had risen to 181.30 euros – also due to the booming business with small batteries for wireless headphones, for example. Things have been going downhill since then.