The Austrian office furniture specialist Svoboda has filed for bankruptcy. In spite of this, the current owner Christoph Königslehner is confident that the company still has a future in remediated form. According to Königslehner, there were already talks with an interested takeover candidate, but those talks had not yet been completed when a bankruptcy proved inevitable.
Svoboda is a more than 100-year-old office furniture manufacturer that has grown into a family business. The company has had a turbulent period in recent years. In 2016, the company was taken over. The Svoboda family sold the company to Christoph Königslehner, then together with Siegmund Gruber. Both gentlemen had successfully reorganized the Austrian Hali before. The idea was that , with a takeover and subsequent reorganization of Svoboda, a solid block could be formed against the other big Austrian combination Bene / Neudörfler.
Indebtedness Svoboda too big
It appears that Königslehner has been the sole owner of the company since the end of 2017. In an explanation of the bankruptcy he indicates that Svoboda suffers a heavy burden from her past. With an indebtedness of more than € 8 million, and assets of just over € 2 million, surviving for the company with 105 employees was no longer possible, also because the market conditions in Austria are difficult for Svoboda.
For a restart, a creditors’ agreement is mandatory in Austria, whereby Svoboda is obliged to pay at least 30% of the invoice value.