Fanatec parent/owner Endor AG is now filing for bankruptcy because it has run out of money. There are currently total outstanding liabilities of €95 million, €70 million which is bank debt and keyboard giant Corsair has now pulled out of the takeover deal as debt has grown a little too quickly over the past two months. On a own website she writes the following about the current gloomy situation.
Quote from the official press release:
“Endor AG (WKN 549166 / ISIN: DE0005491666) today filed an application with the Landshut District Court to open insolvency proceedings due to over-indebtedness and insolvency. Endor AG’s foreign subsidiaries are not affected by the application. The attempt to restructure Endor AG under the Corporate Stabilization and Restructuring Act (StaRUG) failed. The reason for this was the application by the former CEO and majority shareholder to convene an extraordinary general meeting to prevent restructuring under the StaRUG without presenting a viable alternative scenario. In parallel, negotiations with the majority shareholder on financial restructuring involving all shareholders have taken place in recent weeks. However, these negotiations had to be broken off without result due to unrealistic demands. The strategic investor CORSAIR then decided not to make any further payments from the bridge financing, as the ongoing disruptions made restructuring under the StaRUG impossible. The lending banks have also refused further financing due to excessive indebtedness.
“The Board of Directors regrets that the already advanced negotiations with the strategic investor CORSAIR could not be concluded. As part of the insolvency proceedings, another open-ended procedure to save the company is now being initiated with the aim of rehabilitating the company and securing the Landshut site and jobs. The Board of Directors is confident that the company will be taken over by an investor during the insolvency proceedings; at the same time, the Board of Directors assumes that CORSAIR remains interested in taking over Endor AG. Endor AG will continue its business operations during the insolvency proceedings: Sales as well as warranty and repair services will continue without restriction, and customers will continue to receive driver and software updates.”
Andres Ruff, CEO of Endor, adds: “We would like to thank our customers, employees and business partners for their trust and support over the past few months. As part of the insolvency proceedings, we will continue the restructuring and work hard to restructure the company. We are confident that we will emerge from this situation stronger and return to a sustainable, profitable growth path.
“The Board of Management sees the reasons for the massive corporate crisis in numerous wrong decisions made by management in recent years. Examples of this include the oversized construction of the new company headquarters, incorrectly calculated chip and goods orders, which led to high depreciation and incorrect implementation of processes and systems amounting to millions. Endor AG’s bank debt rose to 70 million euros, particularly in the growth phase after 2020. In addition, there are high accumulated debts to suppliers and other business partners as well as the necessary bridging loan from CORSAIR. As a result, the group’s liabilities have now grown to more than 95 million euros. Given annual sales of around 100 million euros, this led to over-indebtedness and insolvency.”
