SolarWorld CEO buys castle
28. January 2013 | Markets & Trends | By: Sandra EnkhardtFrank Asbeck would often like to be referred to as the sun king in the solar industry. While his photovoltaic group grapples with its debt issues, the CEO has bought a castle in Germany from entertainer Thomas Gottschalk.
News of the SolarWorld CEO’s extravagant purchase follows the announcement last Thursday that radical restructuring would be necessary to the company’s survival, and on January 14 that it had placed 350 of its 1,330 staff at its Freiberg, Germany location on short-time work.
According to an unconfirmed report in Germany’s Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the purchase price is estimated to be more than €5 million. It added that, built in 1859, the 800 square meter Castle Marienfels has 14 rooms and 100,000 square meters of forest. It was bought by Gottschalk in 2004 for €3.5 million.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung added that Asbeck would settle his established charitable foundation at the castle.
Translated and edited by Becky Beetz.
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