The Swabian battery manufacturer Varta is once again worried about its financing.

The restructuring agreed with the creditor banks and majority shareholder Michael Tojner just over a year ago is not enough to "return to a profitable growth course" by the end of 2026 as planned, Varta admitted in Ellwangen. Negotiations with the banks must now be reopened. The prerequisite for this is that Varta is certified as having a good chance of survival in a new restructuring report. This should be available by the middle of the year. The banks have agreed to remain silent until then. The uncertain future shocked Varta shareholders: the share price fell by up to a third on Friday to an all-time low of 9.30 euros.

"I suspect there may be a need for further financing, and at the moment it is still unclear where these additional funds will come from," said analyst Robert-Jan van der Horst from Warburg Research. He lowered the target price from 16 to seven euros. Varta explained that it had hired the investment bank Rothschild to "work out strategic options with regard to potential recapitalization and financing measures". Tojner's MontanaTech had already injected 50 million euros in fresh capital a year ago. At the end of September, Varta had debts of 560 million euros and liquid funds of 40 million euros.

A cyber attack on Varta in February, which paralyzed production for weeks, further exacerbated the financial situation. The fundamental problem, however, is that the business with both small lithium-ion button cells for headphones and energy storage systems for the electricity produced from photovoltaic roofs is performing worse than planned. The latter were Varta's greatest hope. However, the company admitted that demand for energy storage systems had unexpectedly collapsed. The competition from China was supplying cheaper and dealers were sitting on large stocks.

A positive going concern forecast from the auditors at KPMG was the basis for the banks extending their loans until the end of 2026. This is usually conditional on the company meeting certain financial ratios. This is apparently no longer the case. The assumptions in the expert opinion can no longer be maintained, explained Varta. Bonn-based AuxilPartner is now to write a new report.

(Report by Alexander Hübner; edited by Olaf Brenner; If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)).