Future of Leipzig/Halle cargo hub under scrutiny
10 / 01 / 2024
Source: Shutterstock
Auditing firm KPMG has completed a restructuring report on the financially ailing operator of Leipzig/Halle Airport, Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG (MFAG), with observers expecting that shareholders will have to inject fresh capital.
According to Air Cargo News sister title DVZ, KPMG will hand over a so-called IDW-S6 restructuring report to the management and supervisory boards of MFAG today.
The report, which runs to several hundred pages, addresses the question of whether the operating company of the Leipzig/Halle and Dresden airports can be sustainably and successfully reorganised and continue despite its long-standing economically difficult situation.
In the course of transmitting the KPMG audit results, MFAG’s chief executive, Götz Ahmelmann, and MFAG’s chief financial officer, Ingo Ludwig, invited the company’s executives to a meeting due to take place tomorrow morning.
Informing employees
From 12pm, the board will then speak to employees for around 90 minutes as part of a large staff meeting.
The invitation letter states that the employees should be presented “first-hand with the results of the restructuring report (KPMG)”
The board also wants to “report on the planned transformation measures”.
When asked by DVZ, MFAG did not want to comment on the events.
According to reports, the restructuring report from KPMG was requested by Commerzbank in mid-September last year as a condition for the release of loan funds.
According to information from people entrusted with the process, it was originally supposed to be completed by the end of November.
Management consultancy Alix Partners is reported to have been working on behalf of the company since autumn 2023 to prepare its own report.
Shareholders in focus
According to insiders, the supervisory board expects a so-called positive going concern forecast but it is rumoured that this is likely to be linked to certain conditions described in the S6 report.
However, this is likely to be linked to certain conditions described in the S6 report.
According to the market, it is to be expected that MFAG can continue to operate successfully in the future provided that the shareholders (the Free State of Saxony with a 77.3 per cent share and the state of Saxony-Anhalt with 18.5 per cent) inject fresh capital.
According to the latest figures for 2022, MFAG generated a consolidated loss €36.5m with a turnover of €171.1m. With a volume of around 1.5m tonnes for 2022, Leipzig/Halle Airport is the second-largest cargo airport in Germany after Frankfurt am Main.
