Manroland Files for Biggest Insolvency in Germany in 2 Years
November 28, 2011, 7:14 AM ESTBy Sheenagh Matthews and Karin Matussek
(Updates with Manroland comments from second paragraph.)
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Manroland AG, the German printing- press maker that’s majority owned by Allianz SE, filed for insolvency, in the country’s biggest corporate failure since retailer Arcandor AG collapsed two years ago.
Manroland filed to open insolvency proceedings with the district court in Augsburg, Germany, court spokesman Alfred Schwarz said. Werner Schneider was appointed as insolvency administrator, said the Offenbach-based company, which employs 6,500 workers worldwide, mainly in Germany.
Germany’s printing-press industry has been in a state of decline for years, as customers struggle to arrange financing for the machines that typically cost more than $1 million and demand for printed material declines in the age of web publishing. Manroland and larger rival Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG have cut jobs and put workers on shorter hours to lower costs.
“The decision to file for insolvency was triggered by another dramatic downturn in incoming orders which can be noticed since mid-July and has recently accelerated,” Manroland said in a statement. “Customers are finding it far more difficult to obtain financing in the aftermath of the financial crisis.”
Failed Merger Bid
Manroland’s annual sales have fallen by more than half since 2006 to 942 million euros ($1.25 billion) last year, pushing the company to an operating loss. The company has responded by cutting its workforce by almost one-fifth and putting one-third of its remaining employees on shorter hours.
Allianz, based in Munich, holds 75 percent of Manroland’s share capital, while German heavy-truck maker MAN SE owns almost 23 percent. Allianz is also the biggest investor in Heidelberger Druck. The insurer tried and failed two years ago to combine the two companies.
“All solutions failed because of a lack of financial support,” Juergen Kerner, deputy chairman of Manroland’s supervisory board, said in a statement today. “A potential investor surprisingly withdrew. But especially the owners MAN and Allianz were not prepared to provide more support.”
Heidelberger Druck shares climbed 10 percent to 1.43 euros as of 12:58 p.m. local time, on optimism the failure of a competitor will help ease overcapacity. Manroland is the biggest maker of so-called web-fed printing machines used in newspaper production, while Heidelberger Druck is the industry leader in sheet-fed machines used for packaging.
Manroland has filed a request for self-administration to complete restructuring efforts, and Frank Kebekus was appointed as general representative for the revamp, Manroland said. Management aims to rescue key units, it said.
Allianz has pooled the holding in its Allianz Capital Partners investment vehicle. The insurer lost 150 million euros when jet-maker Fairchild Dornier GmbH sought protection from creditors in 2002 and wrote off its entire investment in Authentos GmbH, Germany’s former state-owned federal printer.
Arcandor filed for insolvency in June 2009 after years of sales declines at department-store chain Karstadt, which employed about 25,000 people in Germany.
--Editors: Andrew Noel, Benedikt Kammel
To contact the reporters on this story: Sheenagh Matthews in Frankfurt at smatthews6@bloomberg.net; Karin Matussek in Berlin at kmatussek@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net
