Conergy

Conergy AG
legal form	Corporation
founding	1998
resolution	2019
Seat	Hamburg , Germany
sales	1 billion euros (2007)
Branch	Renewable energy

Conergy was a solar company based in Hamburg . The company was active worldwide in the planning, financing, construction and operation of private and commercial roof systems as well as turnkey megawatt parks. At its peak in 2007, Conergy had a peak turnover of 1 billion euros with a workforce of 2,834 in 26 countries. Customers included private and commercial roof owners, installers, solar wholesalers, but also private and institutional solar investors. The company headquarters was in Hamburg.

The company was founded in 1998. In 2005 it went public. On July 5, 2013, Conergy AG filed for insolvency at the Hamburg District Court . The Conergy production companies Mounting Systems and Conergy SolarModule were also affected. The companies Conergy Deutschland GmbH and Conergy Services GmbH were not affected. Lawyer Sven-Holger Undritz from the White & Case law firm has been appointed as preliminary insolvency administrator . From October 1, 2013, the US asset manager Kawa Capital Management took over significant parts of the non-insolvent domestic and foreign sales and service companies of Conergy AG.

After the bankruptcy, Conergy was taken off the stock exchange and renamed to blueleaf energy in the late summer of 2019 after the sale, renaming and dissolution of the approximately 20 subsidiaries .

Corporate structure

In Germany, the Conergy Group consisted of Conergy Global Solutions GmbH, Conergy Deutschland GmbH and Conergy Services GmbH. The headquarters of all companies were in Hamburg.

history

1998-2007

The company was founded in 1998 by Hans-Martin Rüter in Hamburg. It was initially founded as a holding company without any operational business from SunTechnics Solartechnik GmbH and as a result held 100% of SunTechnics, which was also founded by Rüter . It served to hold majority shareholdings along the value chain of the photovoltaics industry. In 1999 AET Solartechnik GmbH was taken over. In the same year, Conergy co-founded voltwerk GmbH , based in Stuttgart. In the course of the internationalization of the projects, voltwerk was renamed Epuron GmbH in 2006 . The combination of these three brands resulted in synergies and cost efficiency. The result was the first commercial megawatt project in Markstetten, Bavaria, which was inaugurated in 2001 with a capacity of 1.2 MWp and sold to private investors. In autumn 2002, the 4 MWp solar power plant was developed in Hemau, Bavaria, which was the world's largest system at the time and was built turnkey for commissioning in 2003.

In addition to the production of frame and fastening systems in Rangsdorf , Brandenburg, which has existed since 1999, the Hessian company Sun Power Solartechnik GmbH was taken over in 2000 . Conergy transformed from a holding company into an operational company. Before 2004, the solar market in Germany was driven by regional and nationwide subsidies, such as the 100,000 roofs program . From 2004, the market volume multiplied as a result of the introduction of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). Conergy benefited from this and expanded its brands into 26 countries. In 2000 there was a change from a GmbH to a stock corporation (AG) under German law. On March 17, 2005, the company went public with an initial listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange accompanied by Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank , with a 27-fold oversubscription and an initial listing at 31% above the issue price of 54 euros per share. The company value was 710 million euros and rose to a peak of 2.3 billion euros in the following two years.

The company developed until autumn 2007 with annual sales growth rates of 60% on average. However, important suppliers from Japan and China did not fulfill the supply contracts in full; this led to a loss of sales of 130 million euros in 2007 and resulted in a profit warning. Under pressure from the banks, a capital increase of EUR 70 million was carried out and members of the Board of Management were separated. The founder and CEO Rüter left the company in November 2007. For the entire year 2007 a loss of 210 million euros was stated in the annual report. In addition, there was suspicion of irregularities in the last annual financial statements, the German audit office for accounting (DPR) has initiated an investigation against the Hamburg.

The former Tchibo boss Dieter Ammer became provisional chairman of the board at the end of 2007 . In addition, Andreas von Zitzewitz - formerly at Infineon - was recruited as a new candidate for the Executive Board in March; however, his contract was terminated in August 2010.

2008-2010

In June 2009 it became known that the Hamburg public prosecutor's office had started investigations against eleven top managers on suspicion of falsification of accounts and insider trading.

The indictment was filed in June 2011 and in April 2015 the main proceedings against six former managers were opened before the Hamburg Regional Court , among other things for falsifying accounts. There were also allegations that the share price had been kept artificially high in 2006 and 2007 and that some managers had sold their own shares for a total of 42 million euros during this time.

After Dieter Ammer, who received an acquittal from the Hamburg Regional Court on October 28, 2015 , the other defendants, the former CEO Hans-Martin Rüter, the ex-Conergy project director Nikolaus Krane and the former CFO Heiko Piossek, were also released on April 11 In 2016 acquitted of allegations of market manipulation, falsification of accounts and insider trading. The auditors summoned as witnesses confirmed the bookings at the time in court. This did not substantiate the allegation of criminal misstatement, deliberate market manipulation and insider trading. Heiko Piossek even receives compensation from the state. The court only found administrative offenses that are compensated for by fines.

The economic situation was negatively impacted by a contract with the American silicon manufacturer MEMC , in which Conergy committed itself in 2007 to the purchase of silicon wafers with a total volume of eight billion US dollars. In the period that followed, silicon prices on the world market collapsed, which caused Conergy financial difficulties in view of the fixed prices agreed with MEMC. Due to the new market conditions, the contract was terminated out of court by both sides in October 2009, as was the case with competing companies. On January 24, 2010, Conergy reached an agreement with MEMC on an adjustment of the silicon supply contract so that the wafers will in future be delivered to Conergy at current market prices and only in accordance with the respective requirements.

In the course of restructuring, Conergy withdrew from other areas of renewable energies in order to focus on solar energy.

In July 2010, Conergy agreed with the financing banks to extend their loans until the end of 2011; Finally, a rescheduling of outstanding liabilities was announced in December as part of capital measures that were finally resolved at the Annual General Meeting in February 2011. With this rescheduling, the share capital should initially be reduced from 400 to 50 million, whereby 8 shares should be merged into 1. The share capital was then to be topped up with an increase in cash and contributions in kind of 188 million euros. Some shareholders have sued against these capital measures and thus initially prevented the legally binding entry in the commercial register. A decision by the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg finally made implementation possible in June 2011.

In December 2010 around 300 megawatts (MW) of wind power capacity from the subsidiary Epuron were sold to an investment company. With this, Conergy completed its realignment as a solar energy provider. Under the leadership of Dieter Ammer, Conergy was no longer able to maintain its leadership position in the market and gradually lost market shares and experienced managers. In July 2013, Conergy AG filed for bankruptcy.

2011 to 2019

Due to changes in the key shareholders, a new Supervisory Board was elected at the Annual General Meeting on August 26, 2011. In December 2011 it was announced that the subsidiary voltwerk electronics GmbH , which manufactures inverters, would be sold to Bosch GmbH . However, the antitrust authorities still had to approve this, so that this sale could not be completed until April 2012.

In January 2012, Philip Comberg was appointed to the Executive Board by the Supervisory Board until the end of December 2012, where he became Chairman. Due to the provisions of the Stock Corporation Act, his position as chairman of the supervisory board was suspended during this time. The board member responsible for finance, Sebastian Biedenkopf, left the company in February 2012. Andreas Pleßke had been chairman of the supervisory board since January 1, 2013.

In June 2013, the unexpected failure to receive a payment from a major project led to the insolvency of Conergy's production companies Mounting Systems and Conergy SolarModule. The Conergy Management Board then came to the conclusion that there was no positive forecast for the going concern of Conergy AG. On July 5, 2013, Conergy AG filed for insolvency proceedings with the Hamburg District Court.

On October 2, 2013, a takeover agreement was signed with Kawa Capital Management, Inc. , which is based in Miami (USA). Philip Comberg was appointed to the Supervisory Board on January 1, 2014 and was also a member of the "Board of Directors" of the parent company Kawa Solar Ltd .

With three takeovers, the insolvency administrator wound up the solar group Conergy on December 1, 2013. The buyers came from China and the USA, among others. Not all of the 1,000 or so jobs could be retained. With the new majority shareholder Kawa, Conergy installed three times as many solar systems in the first half of 2014 as in the same period of the previous year. On August 26, 2019, it was announced that the Singapore- based company had restructured under the name blueleaf energy .

Former production sites

Plant in Frankfurt (Oder)

The company operated a fully automated wafer , cell and module factory in Frankfurt (Oder) until 2013 . Since the end of 2007, the factory had a capacity of up to fifty megawatts (MW) of modules at the location of the former chip factory in Frankfurt (Oder) . The contract for the construction of the 250 megawatt peak cell line in Frankfurt (Oder) was awarded to Roth & Rau AG , a provider of turnkey cell factories. After an expansion of the plant in 2009, the capacity of the plant increased to four cell lines and five production lines for the construction of modules.

Electronic components and software solutions for the operation of photovoltaic systems were produced in the development halls in Bad Vilbel . Both string and central inverters were produced for different system sizes. Tracking systems for solar systems were also produced in Bad Vilbel . Furthermore, monitoring systems for solar systems were manufactured and developed at this location.

Individual components, module frames and complete systems for assembling a solar system were produced in Rangsdorf .

share

Conergy AG had been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since March 2005 . The share was listed in the TecDAX from June 2005 and was one of the leading German technology stocks. Speculations drove up the price on the stock exchange in 2007, so that on September 24, 2007 it reached a peak of over 110 euros. Since June 4, 2007 the share was listed with interruptions in the ÖkoDAX ; it was last resumed on March 19, 2012. In connection with the financial crisis, the necessary rescheduling and some suspected cases against leading employees of the company, confidence in the share fell and it fell to 1 euro in the course of 2011. The main shareholder in March 2011 was Commerzbank with 29%, which, however, reduced its stake to 9% by July. In return, Deutsche Bank and investor York Global Finance got on board. In March 2011, 17 shareholders sued the company for around 3.5 million euros in damages due to a lack of ad hoc reports on the company's financial situation and suspected falsification of the balance sheet.

On July 24, 2013, the shareholder structure was as follows: Free float: 79.85%; York Global Finance: 20.15%, the bankruptcy led to further price falls. At the beginning of 2014, the free float had risen to over 97%. On December 9, 2013, eight years after the initial listing, the insolvent stock corporation withdrew from the stock exchange.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Conergy plans further sales of over 1 billion euros in 2008 (at: ChannelPartner von IDG , November 14, 2008)
2. ↑ http://www.conergy.de/uber-conergy/
3. ↑ Conergy is broke ( memento of July 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Online at tagesschau.de from July 5, 2013.
4. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Hamburg District Court, July 5, 2013, Az. 67a IN 243/13
6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Conergy rebrands as Blueleaf energy . At: blueleaf energy (homepage), August 26, 2019 (accessed October 11, 2019)
8. ↑ Conergy AG continues growth in Hamburg . At: ECO-News - the green press agency , December 19, 2001 (accessed October 9, 2019)
9. ↑ Conergy subsidiary voltwerk becomes EPURON and continues to grow strongly abroad . Press release voltwerk AG, December 15, 2006 (accessed October 9, 2019)
10. ^ Hansjörg Gabler, Hans-Dieter Mohring: Large-scale photovoltaic systems - technology and implementation . FVS Topics 2002; P. 60 (available online as PDF)
11. ↑ The world's largest solar park on a former ammunition depot in Bavaria put into operation ( Memento from March 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Conergy IPO: Investors reap subscription profits . At: manager-magazin.de , March 17, 2005
13. ↑ Conergy Annual Report 2007, p. 88 (available online as PDF)
14. ↑ Handelsblatt No. 216 of November 8, 2007 page 16, November 8, 2007, "Solar group Conergy receives financial injection"
15. ↑ Chaos at Conergy: top manager leaves solar company in dispute . SpiegelOnline from August 19, 2010.
16. ↑ NDR Online from June 17, 2009: Public prosecutor's office is investigating Conergy employees
17. ↑ SPIEGEL Online from June 17, 2009: Suspected balance sheet falsification - public prosecutor searches Conergy
18. ↑ JUVE - www.juve.de: Hamburg: Ex-Conergy managers rely on Kempf, Kury, Heuking and Langrock «JUVE. In: www.juve.de. Retrieved July 4, 2016 . 
19. ↑ Ex-Conergy boss Rüter rejects allegations . Online at handelsblatt.com from July 25, 2011.
20. ↑ Dieter Ammer: Ex-boss of the solar company Conergy acquitted. In: www.handelsblatt.com. Retrieved July 4, 2016 . 
21. ^ FOCUS Online: Court acquits Conergy board member Piossek. Retrieved July 4, 2016 . 
22. ↑ IT Times Germany of October 7, 2009 Conergy: MEMC drops lawsuit
23. ↑ Handelsblatt dated January 25, 2010: Conergy reaches an agreement with MEMC
24. ↑ CIO of June 24, 2010 Conergy introduces SAP
25. ↑ http://www.wallstreet-online.de/nachricht/3107810-conergy-vorstand-wirbt-fuer-rettungspaket-ohne-alternative
26. ↑ fondshttp: //www.produktion.de/clean-tech/energieproduktion/conergy-verkauf-groszteil-der-lössparte-epuron
27. ↑ Insolvent: Conergy consortium bank votes against new investor - FINANCE magazine. In: www.finance-magazin.de. Retrieved July 4, 2016 . 
28. ↑ Bosch takes over inverter specialists
29. ↑ http://www.photovoltaik-guide.de/conergy-ag-kartellbehoerden-stimmen-verkauf-von-voltwerk-electronics-an-bosch-zu-25323
30. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
31. ↑ http://www.conergy.de/pressemitteilungen/kawa-schliest-finale-ubernahme-der-globalen-conergy-vertriebs-und-serviceeinrichtungen-ab-2/
32. ↑ Capital injection for solar company Conergy. Wirtschaftswoche, July 7, 2014, accessed October 26, 2014 . 
33. ↑ Press release from blueleaf energy of August 26, 2019 (accessed October 11, 2019)
34. ↑ Märkische Oderzeitung dated December 2, 2009 Conergy plant almost full
35. ↑ Solar Server Voltwerk VT Single ( Memento of the original from November 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
36. ↑ Photovoltaic Guide Conergy is setting the course for solar energy solutions of the future for self-consumption
37. ↑ http://www.ftd.de/unternehmen/industrie/:solarunternehmen-musterprozess-gegen-conergy-beginnt-im-maerz/60145286.html ( Memento from December 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive )