At the ailing German agricultural, construction and energy conglomerate Baywa, the helm will be taken by Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) Michael Baur, who has been tasked with making the company smaller and healthier.
The company announced this at the end of last week. Baur comes from consultancy firm Alix Partners and is considered a heavyweight for more difficult interim jobs. As CRO, he will take on both the tasks of CEO and CFO (financial director).
With his appointment, it was announced that Marcus Pollinger will step down as CEO on October 31. CFO Andreas Helber will remain until the end of March 2025, but will then also have to leave after fourteen years. In the meantime, the chairmanship of the supervisory board remains firmly in the hands of Gregor Scheller.
Baywa re once growth diamond
The expectation is that temporary strongman Michael Baur will now get to work on the restructuring of the company with great enthusiasm, with priority for Baywa re This business unit was once the growth diamond of the company, but is now - thanks to bad investments and uncontrolled projects - the sick part There is a chance that the entire division will go out the door. A number of units have already been sold or are on the list for divestment.
In the construction and agricultural divisions, the need to cut seems to be less present. However, data company Farm Facts has already been sold to the Luxembourg Eurofins, which is known in the Netherlands for its soil samples, among other things. In addition to Cefetra, fruit company TFC Holland also belongs to the agricultural division of Baywa in the Netherlands.
Remote Creditors and Extra Money
Baur has not only been given a strong mandate to restructure the group and make it healthy again, conditions have also been created so that he can do his job better. For example, it has been agreed with the more than three hundred creditors that none of them can claim repayments for the time being, but that a kind of time-out applies to everyone for the time being. This agreement did not come about without a struggle, but 95% saw that this would still be the least bad option. Baur will also have access to an additional emergency credit of €500 million until the end of the year, on top of the €547 million that was already promised in August.
High advisory bill
There is some grumbling about the costs that Baur and his assistants charge for their rescue work. It is said that this costs around €1 million per day. The accusation of body snatching is quickly made, but Baywa probably doesn't have much choice either. According to the reports, the debt is already larger than €5 billion and will only grow further without drastic measures.