Lingerie group goes bankrupt

Palmers: Insolvency proceedings now officially opened

(Bild: P. Huber)

The insolvency proceedings of the Palmers underwear group were opened on Friday at the Wiener Neustadt Regional Court, according to credit protection experts. The long-established company had already applied for restructuring proceedings with self-administration on Thursday. The company is to be continued as a going concern. The creditors are being offered a quota of 30 percent, payable within two years of acceptance of the restructuring plan.

"The restructuring administrator will now examine in cooperation with the debtor which branches can be continued in a cost-covering or profitable manner," said Alexander Greifeneder from KSV 1870. "In addition, the results of the negotiations with potential investors must be awaited with regard to the financing of the restructuring plan offered."

AKV wants to examine self-administration "closely"
AKV creditor protector Cornelia Wesenauer, on the other hand, wants to take a "close look" at the proposed self-administration. However, Wesenauer said that the key issue for her is also how "far the talks with investors have progressed". The investor is still unknown.

Palmers has not been accepting vouchers or the famous green coins since Thursday.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Palmers / Gregor Hofbauer, Palmers)

The lingerie retailer stopped accepting its own green voucher coins on Thursday. Theoretically, Palmers could still accept coins until insolvency proceedings are opened, according to the credit protector. "But I wouldn't advise the company to do that," said Wesenauer, referring to the issue of creditor preference.

State-owned COFAG collateralized Palmers loan
In its insolvency application, Palmers put its debts (liabilities) at around 51 million euros and its assets at 11.50 million euros. As a result of the insolvency, a EUR 14.4 million loan secured by COVID-19 Finanzierungsagentur des Bundes GmbH (COFAG) is now automatically due. According to media reports, 90% of the loan is secured by COFAG and therefore by the state. COFAG was dissolved in mid-2024 and all of COFAG's rights and obligations from funding agreements were transferred unchanged to the federal government. When asked by APA, the Ministry of Finance did not comment on the Palmers loan and COFAG case for the time being.

The SME consultant Finanzombudsmann has identified many unanswered questions regarding the Palmers loan, including the COFAG guarantee, and has therefore filed a complaint with the Financial Market Authority (FMA). They want to find out "whether the minimum standards of the FMA were complied with when granting this loan or whether the bridging loan granted paved the way for the company's bankruptcy". The question was "was the repayment of the loan - within the framework of the forecast at the time - guaranteed or not", said the consultant. At the time the loan was granted, Palmers only had a cash flow of around 0.2 million euros.