Around 200 Conergy employees gathered on Monday in Frankfurt Oder at the request of a works council. There is a lot of uncertainty that during the course of a change in ownership following the companys debt relief efforts, jobs could be lost and production lines shut down.
"We are suffering from an information jam," work council head, Harald Frick, told pv magazine.
The works council wants to set an example at the annual general meeting scheduled to be held on Friday in Hamburg to inform the shareholders about Frankfurt Oder.
There is already a gradual dismantling of jobs underway at the Frankfurt manufacturing facility. There are fears that in the future, only modules will be produced, while sales and distribution will be moved to Hamburg, continued Frick. A final decision will, however, most likely be reached in November. ?
From Fricks point of view, module prices have meanwhile reached the ceiling.
Denying the rumors, a Conergy spokesperson said that production would remain in Frankfurt Oder. As of yet, no decision has been made over how production-cost efficiencies could be gained.
With a view of the price pressure, which is coming from weak market conditions and competition from Chinese manufacturers, the spokesperson stressed however that solutions will have to be found in order for Conergy to stay competitive.
Ownership change
After Conergys decision to undertake debt relief, the company now has a new shareholder structure. The previously biggest shareholder, Comerzbank, now has a share of 4.92 percent, according to "Der Aktionär".
The Deutsche Bank meanwhile holds around 13 percent and has risen to become Conergys biggest shareholder, followed by Hedge Fonds Sothis Capital and York Global Finance, which hold a 12.3 percent and 11.7 percent stake in the company respectively.
At the general meeting scheduled to be held on Friday, the supervisory board will be withdrawn and a new control committee selected. Two candidates for the Chairman of the supervisory board are in the running: former investment banker of the Deutsche Bank, Philip Comberg; and Andreas Pleßke of Prym Holding.
Popular content
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Share
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.