Photovoltaic news and pv jobs

Ammer: “Operationally Conergy has survived the worst”

(Update) “In operational terms we have survived.” This was the statement made by Dieter Ammer, departing chairman of the Board at Conergy AG at the General Meeting of Shareholders, according to a report by the press agency dpa-AFX.

Conergy's shareholders criticized the fact that the threat of insolvency has yet to be averted. Image: Conergy.

For three quarters now the photovoltaic company has been back in the black. However, according to the report, the shareholders criticized the fact that the threat of insolvency has yet to be averted.

At the end of July and after months of negotiations with the banks, Conergy managed to obtain an extension of its credit agreement until the end of the coming year. But the prerequisite for the new agreement is that the company will be able to continue to finance itself afterwards.

Meanwhile, an independent auditing company has been commissioned with determining the likelihood of this prospect. The expert opinion of the auditors is scheduled for submission at the end of November.

At the General Meeting of Shareholders Ammer indicated that this loan extension costs Conergy a lot of money. The interest rate, for example, was increased by 0.65 percent. And before that it was already two percent above the reference rate.

Conergy has more than a few creditors. In the meantime, at least one hedge fund also belongs to its list of creditors after York Capital took over the loan from Barclays Bank

Positive outlook

For this year, Ammer anticipates a positive result for the first time again. An EBITDA profit of 30 to 40 million euros may be expected. Next year, Conergy is aiming at further growth.

In this case, the photovoltaic technology company will profit from its strong position abroad. Already this year Conergy has generated just under half of its sales abroad. Nevertheless, Ammer believes that the international markets will only stagnate in the coming year and that the solar boom in Germany will come to an end.

Dual leadership in the future

Dieter Ammer took over as chairman of the Board at Conergy three years ago. At the time the company was on the brink of folding. Ammer implemented an austere restructuring program. Since then, the company has refocused on the solar business.

At the General Meeting of Shareholders Ammer was elected to the newly formed Supervisory Board, as Conergy communicated. All of its members were elected until elapse of the term of office in 2014.

The other members of the Management Board, Sebastian Biedenkopf (´Finances) and Andreas Wilsdorf (Marketing) will temporarily share chairmanship of the Management Board, as Conergy spokesman Alexander Leinhos confirmed at the request of pv magazine.

Consequently, the Supervisory Board has won time in order to find a new chairman of the Board. That the search will be successfully concluded in the “foreseeable future” may well be assumed. The Supervisory Board is currently talking with various candidates. Andreas von Zitzewitz, who was actually Ammer’s designated successor, surprisingly left the company in August.