Fimer secures €45 million of funds, announces relaunch

From pv magazine Spain

Fimer has announced an industrial relaunch after entering composition-with-creditors proceedings at a tribunal in Arezzo, Italy.

The Italian inverter manufacturer filed for creditor protection with the same court in February. According to Italian legislation, the composition-with-creditors procedure is a contractual settlement between a debtor and its creditors. The arrangement gives a business the chance to restructure its debt obligations and continue as a going concern.

The company presented its new industrial plan to the tribunal in late June.

“It was developed to achieve a full recovery of the activities of production of solar inverters and charging solutions for electric vehicles,” a company spokesperson told pv magazine.

The Fimer representative said the industrial plan is designed to help the company to recover from the financial impact of the pandemic, components shortages, and global issues with raw materials. The source said that these factors contributed to the “emergence and subsequent worsening of cash liquidity and the slowdown of production activities.”

The spokesperson also said that Fimer has received €45 million ($42.9 million) in funds from GeneralFinance.

“This support will enable the company to purchase raw materials and essential components to ensure the full recovery of production activities,” the company said, adding that the considerable backlog of orders will, in turn, help to cover costs related to the start of the production process for new products.

Fimer has two inverter factories in Italy. It acquired one of them from Swiss conglomerate ABB in 2020. The company employs more than 1,000 people throughout the world and is present in more than 20 countries, with local training centers and manufacturing sites.