No money to pay the advance on the December salaries of the more than 3,000 employees; In addition, at VMG Metall, another company from the corporate network that went bankrupt, the need for motorcycle manufacturer KTM is increasing. Many people wonder: how bad is the situation really with the company that was forced to restructure?
“We are now making a pit stop for the future,” said Stefan Pierer on November 26, when Pierer Mobility AG announced that three days later three motorcycle manufacturer KTM companies would file bankruptcy proceedings. KTM AG, KTM Forschungs & Entwicklung GmbH and KTM Components GmbH have been restructuring things since November 29. There are still 90 days before the restructuring plan is voted on on February 25. But: the doubts about whether the people of Mattighofen can reach that point are becoming increasingly louder.
Because: Not only is the debt mountain at the company from Mattighofen (Upper Austria) extremely high at around two billion euros, the extent of the damage at the pit stop still feels greater.
After the more than 3,600 affected employees were promised that they would receive an advance of 90 percent on their December salary a few days after the declaration of bankruptcy, they were subsequently postponed until “before Christmas”. It is now clear: the liquidity is not available to make such transfers. The December salary should – as usual – only arrive at the end of the month.
Only a small part was transferred
This is a blow to the employees, because they will now miss out on their November salary and most of their Christmas bonus. The insolvency compensation fund will cover both. In the meantime, KTM has only transferred a small part, namely the salary for November 30 and the December part of the Christmas bonus.
In addition to suppliers, customers, financial institutions, banks, tax authorities and health insurers, the workforce is particularly affected: 250 employees have already been dismissed and another 500 will be sent to the AMS in January. Is that enough? Will it even be possible to continue? The rumor mill has been running since Friday morning, since it became known that there was no money for the December advances: it is a mixture of worry and fear. Fear that KTM might not be able to do it and the planned renovation would fail.
Appointment to the Ried Regional Court on December 20
The first reporting meeting in the context of the insolvency proceedings will take place on Friday, December 20, at the regional court in Ried im Innkreis. Then it becomes clear what course the company will take. It does not yet seem possible to predict how the coming days will develop. Further worrying is the bankruptcy of a subsidiary of KTM Components GmbH. “Somehow you can no longer assess the situation,” says Wolfgang Gerstmayer of the GPA union in Upper Austria.
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.
