Schletter acquisition could save North Carolina factory

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Schletter’s acquisition has been successfully completed by Golden Square Capital. The company announced the transfer of its business operations and shares to the new investor in a closing last week. Already in late June, in an interview with pv magazine at the Smarter E tradeshow in Munich, CEO Tom Graf disclosed that the banks involved had accepted the purchasing agreement.

“The closing marks the successful finish of our financial recovery,” says Graf. “Free from financial dead wood and under the umbrella of an economically strong partner, we can now get off to a flying start at the markets, and most importantly start investing.”

Schletter’s U.S. subsidiary is also part of the purchasing agreement. “A respective transition will follow in the U.S., where we are near closing of chapter-11 proceedings,” the company states. U.S. bankruptcy courts approved the sale of Schletter Inc. on July 3, with the consent of the company’s secured creditors.

This appears to have happened just in time for Schletter Inc. and factory in Shelby, North Carolina. Court documents indicate that the company was out of cash and would need to cease operations shortly if the sale was not approved. The documents also note that there was not time to confirm a Chapter 11 restructuring plan before finalizing the sale.

The new investor, which is a subsidiary of the Avenue Capital Group, provided assets in the two-digit million range for the relaunch of the global company. Accordingly, Schletter will allocate these funds for product development and its entrance to markets in Asia and the Americas.

At the tradeshow in Munich, Schletter presented a new tracking system for PV arrays. Graf sees particularly good sales opportunities for these systems in the United States, Australia and the Middle East.

The purchasing agreement between Schletter and Golden Square Capital was brokered and disclosed by mid-June. Before the deal, the German company announced it would commence insolvency proceedings under self-administration to achieve its financial recovery. This process started in March this year.

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