Germany taz
Investing in wind farms: 98 percent value lost
The shares of the ailing wind farm project developer Abo Energy are plummeting after the announcement of “restructuring plans”. Small investors are affected. more...
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The massively troubled wind farm project developer Abo Energy from Wiesbaden announced on Wednesday that it would report a “restructuring project” to the Frankfurt am Main district court. This option has existed since 2021 and represents an intermediate route between out-of-court restructuring and formal insolvency. In this procedure, individual groups of creditors can be treated differently.
This doesn't bode well for investors: the price of the Abo Energy GmbH & Co. KGaA share collapsed by 85 percent to less than 50 cents over the course of the day. The company, which with 1,400 employees is one of the major players in the renewable energy sector in Germany, has lost more than 98 percent of its stock market value within twelve months. Abo Energy had already run out of money at the beginning of the year. One reason was oversubscribed onshore wind auctions as part of the Renewable Energy Act, which led to reduced feed-in tariffs.
“Investors are threatened with total loss,” wrote the industry portal Ecoreporter after the ad hoc announcement in question appeared. The development is bitter not only for shareholders, but also for small investors who have lent money to the company.
The subordinated bonds from 2021 and 2024 run until 2030 and 2029, respectively. The second bond with a volume of 80 million euros is listed on the stock exchange, so its price reflects the mood of investors: after the bad news, the bond was only languishing at 1 to 2 percent of its face value.
The company had already announced last Friday that it would suspend interest payments due on a bond. Without “restructuring” “a significant amount of financing and financing components would become due for payment in the next 24 months”. This “cannot repatriate or refinance the company on its own”. Therefore, among other things, “interest and repayment structures should now be adjusted”. Specifically, the creditors of the bonds should completely waive their claims against the company, including interest.