Tesla to buy site of insolvent battery production equipment maker Manz

After the opening of insolvency proceedings related to the assets of German battery production equipment manufacturer Manz AG on Monday, the insolvency administrator has secured a purchase agreement from Tesla Automation GmbH.

The deal stipulates Tesla Automation will operate Manz’s Reutlingen site, in Baden-Württemberg, and will take on more than 300 Manz employees and movable, tangible assets. The purchase agreement is subject to a merger law review by Germany’s national competition regulator, said insolvency administrator Martin Mucha, from Stuttgart law firm Grub Brugger.

The purchase price for the Reutlingen production facility was kept confidential. The proceeds of the sale will go to the insolvency estate.

“We are happy to have successfully concluded the negotiations with Tesla, to have saved many jobs and thus enabled the employees to have a professional future in what is probably the best-known automotive company in the field of electromobility,” said Mucha.

The Tesla Automation German subsidiary of the US-based electric car maker, based in Prüm, Rhineland-Palatinate, has manufactured specialist equipment at three locations in the country. “The location in Reutlingen is an ideal addition to the continued successful implementation of our global automation projects in the Tesla Group,” said Tesla Automation Managing Director Lothar Thommes. “We are very pleased to be able to realize future innovations there.”

Manz announced it would be filing for insolvency late last year and submitted the application to Stuttgart District Court. In January, the sales process was expanded to include all Manz business areas. The insolvency administrator has confirmed all operational, economically independent subsidiaries and other investments will be sold. “The structured sales process for the other assets is being pushed forward with the highest priority, in a very demanding market environment,” said Mucha. “We are currently holding promising talks with several interested parties.”

With the main Manz AG business unable to continue trading, Mucha said, around 100 affected employees will be offered the chance to move to a transfer company to cushion job losses as best as possible.

Sale proceeds will go to unsubordinated creditors of Manz, said Mucha. It is not anticipated such creditors will be paid in full so Manz shareholders, as subordinated creditors, are not expected to receive payment.

From pv magazine Deutschland.