Battery maker Varta said it might not meet restructuring targets and was instead exploring recapitalisation options, and today (Friday) its shares plunged 30% on the news.
The German company agreed a restructuring plan with majority shareholder Michael Tojner last year after a key client, Apple, cut production of AirPods headphones. Tojner injected €50 million ($53 million) as part of the deal.
To make matters worse, Varta was hit by a cyberattack in February, and this led to a production standstill lasting several weeks and further financial deterioration.
The company said in a statement on Thursday that volatility in orders, supply chain problems and decline in demand for energy storage solutions had hit its ability to meet the target. Its energy storage solutions are aimed at private and commercial applications. It makes lithium-ion battery packs and lithium-ion large cells, as well as household batteries.
“The big slowdown in the energy storage business is a negative surprise for me,” analyst Robert van der Horst of Warburg Research told Reuters. “Energy storage had always been held up as a growth area in the past year and more was invested into it even as capex was significantly reduced across the group as a whole,” he added.
Varta swung back into profit in the third quarter of 2023 after a first half loss. But it is in the process of finalising an agreement with creditors. It mandated Rothschild & Co to explore recapitalisation options.
