The German manufacturer of landline telephones and smartphones is bankrupt. The Bocholt company with 850 employees announced on Tuesday that it would file for bankruptcy due to the bankruptcy of the listed parent company and want to reorganize its operating subsidiary Gigaset Communications GmbH on its own. The reason for the bankruptcy was “an unexpected and significant decline in turnover in the second half of the year”.
Demand continued to weaken and Gigaset ran out of money. It said negotiations with lenders and lenders were “not sufficiently developed to secure the necessary inflow of funds to continue Gigaset beyond insolvency proceedings.”
CEO Magnus Ekerot, who joined from Bosch at the beginning of this year, blamed the former management for the imbalance: “In recent years, Gigaset has seen the decline in its core cordless phone business (.. .).” This “unhealthy and one-sided business orientation” contributed to the unfortunate situation. Now it’s about giving Gigaset a solid economic foundation. In addition to telephones, Gigaset also produces smoke detectors and alarm systems.
Majority in Chinese hands
The former Siemens subsidiary was sold to a financial investor in 2008. Since 2014, Gigaset has been majority owned by Chinese investor Sutong Pan through his investment company Goldin Financial Holdings. According to data service provider LSEG, he recently owned 72 percent of the shares. The company was recently worth 42 million euros on the stock exchange.
Two weeks ago, Gigaset significantly revised its forecasts downwards. Contrary to expectations, sales and operating profit (Ebitda) in the current year should be significantly below the level of the previous year. In 2022, Gigaset had a turnover of 241.3 million euros and generated an Ebitda of 17.9 million euros.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
