Raiffeisen Ware Austria (RWA) must prepare for the sale of its shares by half-owner BayWa as early as 2025. BayWa board member Michael Baur prescribes a radical remedy for the Munich-based agricultural and building materials group. Almost all investments abroad must be sold by 2027. This also applies to the 50 percent interest in the Austrian sister company RWA.
BayWa also wants to sell the Dutch grain and soy trader Cefetra next year and the search for a new owner is already underway. New Zealand fruit producer T&G Global (Turners & Growers) will follow in 2026. Baur wants to take until 2027 to sell the remaining 51 percent of the wind and solar energy project subsidiary BayWa re, because business is currently slow.
The deals are expected to generate 4 billion euros
In total, BayWa hopes to generate sales proceeds of around four billion euros, including the debt burden of the companies concerned. This should reduce the debt burden from currently more than five billion euros to one billion under pressure from the banks, according to the overview of the plans. The experts believe that BayWa’s survival is guaranteed only under this condition. Of the turnover of approximately 23 billion euros in the current year, approximately eight billion remains. At the same time, the operating result (Ebitda) is expected to improve to approximately EUR 300 (expected in 2024: 200) million, with savings of more than EUR 300 million. 400 million euros.
In Germany, 1,300 of the 8,000 jobs will disappear
At BayWa AG in Germany, 1,300 of the 8,000 jobs will be cut, including almost 400 in the bloated headquarters. BayWa announced on Wednesday that, as part of the restructuring, the group would be reduced to its core activities: trading in agricultural and construction materials, energy and agricultural technology. However, she had not publicly disclosed how far the plans went.
Baur thus reverses almost all of the expansion under former CEO Klaus Josef Lutz, who had expanded the group with debt-financed acquisitions abroad and the development of its project activities with wind and solar farms.
Rising interest rates, slow sell-through
Rising interest rates and the slow sell-off of a growing number of renewable energy projects pushed BayWa to the brink of bankruptcy this summer. Baur has been working with management consultancy Roland Berger on a restructuring plan since mid-July. By reducing debts, he mainly wants to reduce the interest burden, which has risen from 85 to 400 million euros within five years. By 2027 there should be only 100 million.
Attempts to obtain deferrals and extensions of loans
BayWa’s board is currently struggling with more than a hundred banks and other lenders to defer and extend loans and short-term bonds (commercial paper). A solution should be found by the end of the year. BayWa is planning a capital increase for the coming year that, according to financial circles, will amount to around 150 million euros and will involve major shareholders from the Bavarian and Austrian cooperative sectors. It would be the first since the IPO in 1988. However, the general meeting in 2025 must first create the necessary capital framework, so the step is not realistic before the summer.
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.
