Yesterday, insolvency proceedings have been opened over Klausner Nordamerika Beteiligungs GmbH of St. Johann in Tirol at the regional court Innsbruck. This is according to KSV1870 (Credit Protection Association). The company’s CEO is Leopold Stephan, the sole shareholder is the private foundation Alpha Privatstiftung. Dr. Stefan Geiler, lawyer in Innsbruck, has been appointed as insolvency administrator.
Currently, no reliable information can be given with regard to the amount of liabilities. In the course of the proceedings, it will have to be determined in particular, which outstanding liabilities exist between the companies of the group and which liabilities concern “external” creditors. According to the application for the opening of insolvency proceedings, there are around € 24 million worth of liabilities to affiliated companies. Furthermore, there should be additional outstanding liabilities of about € 4 million. According to information published by KSV1870, it will become clear in the course of the insolvency proceedings which valuable assets there are. According to the insolvency application, there are enormous debts to affiliated companies. It remains to be seen to what extent those debts can be settled.
The debtor was founded in 2006, serves mainly as a holding company and owns 100% of shares of two companies in the US. Those two US-based companies in turn own 100% of shares of three and two other US companies, respectively. The debtor itself filed for the opening of insolvency proceedings.
The debtor is supposed to support Klausner group’s expansion into the US timber industry. It also acts as a business partner for European companies which do not want to have direct contractual relationships with the debtor’s first-tier and second-tier subsidiaries. Also, the debtor made loans available to affiliated companies. According to the application for the opening of insolvency proceedings, the affiliated companies faced problems with obtaining the necessary funding in the US. Supposedly, the debtor received the sums it provided mainly from Alpha Privatstiftung.
Talks about refinancing US production sites failed according to KSV
According to the application for the opening of insolvency proceedings, the companies cannot repay the loans which they obtained in the US. For this reason, an attempt was made in autumn 2019 to obtain refinancing by selling production sites, companies or the entire US group. In the end, however, talks with investors failed.
