GES Deutschland GmbH, the European market leader in the domain of wind energy systems services, will take over service operations of the wind energy systems manufacturer PowerWind GmbH seated in Hamburg.
In one of the first insolvency proceedings in self-administration under a new law on facilitating restructuring of insolvent businesses (ESUG), PowerWind CEO Dieter Dehlke cooperated closely with the insolvency trustee Dr. Sven-Holger Undritz, White & Case Insolvenz GbR, to entirely retain the company’s service organization by way of transferring restructuring. Service operations and all associated employment contracts were transferred to GES Deutschland as of November 1, 2012.
“Of all entities interested in this particular service organization, GES Deutschland GmbH was able to submit the most convincing overall concept,” said CEO Dieter Dehlke. Dehlke is optimistic about continuation of service operations by GES Deutschland GmbH: “Staff structures of both PowerWind and GES match together well, which is why I see enormous potential for these two entities jointly expanding their position on the market.”
The buyer side shares in this optimism. “We concerned ourselves intensively in the past weeks with the PowerWind service organization, and we are convinced this is a sound investment,” said Peter Grosch, CEO GES Deutschland GmbH. His plans are to entirely retain and even expand the service business. “We see lots of good potential, and we seek to benefit from PowerWind staff’s experience and know-how.”
In addition, a major share of inventories, production-related assets and IP rights required for production of PowerWind system were sold to the RK Wind company in India.
In his efforts aimed at company restructuring, PowerWind CEO Dieter Dehlke was supported by the Wellensiek law firm specialized on insolvency law and insolvency proceedings.
Background
The PowerWind GmbH in Hamburg on April 24, 2012 filed for insolvency under self-administration at the district court in Hamburg. This is one of the first such corporate insolvency proceedings under self-administration since the EUSG came into effect on March 1, 2012.
In cooperation with the (provisional) insolvency trustee Dr. Sven-Holger Undritz, Dieter Dehlke already in the provisional insolvency proceedings managed to stabilize and continue business operations following intensive negotiations with suppliers and customers. He thus created the essential prerequisites for a structured investor process.
Insolvency proceedings were then actually instituted by the district court – insolvency court – in Hamburg on July 1, 2012; the Hamburg attorney Dr. Sven-Holger Undritz, Partner to White & Case Insolvenz GbR, was appointed trustee. Management of PowerWind GmbH was supported by the renowned Wellensieck law firm in carrying through the insolvency proceedings under self-administration.
PowerWind GmbH is a German manufacturer of onshore wind energy systems (500 kW, 850 kW, 900 kW and 2500 kW) and provider of services; the company has specialized on community-scale projects. These projects are usually characterized by local ownership structures. They range in size from stand-alone units all the way to wind farms with an output capacity of 30 MW. The generated energy is frequently consumed in the immediate vicinity of the wind farms. Typical community-scale customers are medium-sized businesses, regional project developers, agricultural enterprises, communes, local energy providers, co-op wind farms, schools, universities and recreational facilities. Since its foundation in 2007, PowerWind has successfully implemented numerous projects in eight countries.
GES, Global Energy Services S.A., seated in Bilbao has more than 4,000 employees, making it the world’s largest brand-independent service-provider in the domain of renewable energies with a distinct focus on construction, erection, operation and maintenance of wind farms and solar installations. GES has 20 subsidiaries all over the world and this past fiscal year generated sales in the range of €560 million; its German subsidiaries are the GES Deutschland GmbH and WKA-Service-Fehmarn GmbH.
The majority of shares in GES are held by funds managed by 3i, a leading exchange-traded private equity company seated in London managing assets worth more than €12 billion.
It is the explicit intention of GES to expand its services strongly in the domain of renewable energies both by internal growth and additional purchases with particular emphasis on growing its business in Germany.
RK Wind Ltd. is a joint venture between RS India Infra Power Ltd. (wind farm project developer) and PTC India Ltd., India’s biggest private provider of electrical power. RK Wind has been producing 600kW-wind turbines exclusively for RS India Infra Power. This latter company has been developing wind farms with a total capacity of approx. 1,000 MW in India. For reasons pertaining to economic efficiency and their particular location, plans are to equip these wind farms with more powerful wind turbines.
