It's already the middle of February, and if you've been following the KTM insolvency saga, then the name of this month may just ring a bell for you. Why? Because February 25th is the deadline for any KTM restructuring plan to officially be approved by its creditors.
Preliminary hearings have so far allowed KTM to continue operation under self-administration, per AKV Europa, the Alpine Creditors' Association, which is administering the proceedings. According to the most recent tally of claims from creditors, a total of 3,534 claims against KTM were filed, with over 2,000 from employees and nearly 1,200 from creditors.
According to AKV, EUR 1,665,985,681.24 of those claims have so far been officially recognized. That's just numbers for KTM AG, and doesn't touch on numbers for other Pierer Mobility subsidiaries that have also declared their insolvency.
But claims are still coming in, so that likely won't be the final tally. All claims filed remain under examination, or they will at least until the big deadline on February 25. If you're interested, AKV includes a lot of great information breaking down the different types of claims and what they mean at the link above, but it's a bit in the weeds for us to get into here.
Overall, KTM AG, parent company Pierer Mobility AG, and its creditors have so far agreed that keeping the company a going concern is best for everyone concerned. Even though it owes a substantial amount of money to its creditors, there's much more chance of it being able to pay some portion of its debts if it can continue bringing in money, right?
Under its initial offer to creditors, KTM proposed payment of 30 percent of its outstanding debts over the next two years. However, as Speedweek reports, the troubled OEM is instead exploring the possibility of offering that 30 percent of money owed in one large chunk, in cash. That's around 600 million Euros, for those playing along at home.
If the offer is accepted, a combined effort from KTM's owners, a selection of the 20 or so investors that have come forward, and banks would fork over the promised cash to AKV, no later than April 15, 2025.
Does that mean we know more about the investor situation?
We know a little more about proposed investors, as one of them has spoken publicly to the press about his involvement. To kick off the month of February, Remus CEO and Pierer Mobility board member Stephan Zöchling spoke to the Austrian publication Trend.
Previously, Zöchling invested a significant amount of money into KTM to help keep it operational at the end of 2024. When asked how much money he was looking to invest into KTM at this point, he told Trend that, "I am not allowed to say that for reasons of takeover law. Pierer Mobility is listed on the stock exchange, and there are strict rules that apply. But I have earned a little money with Sberbank that I would like to reinvest."
What's Sberbank? For those unfamiliar, it's a bank based in Russia, with a European subsidiary that Zöchling previously took over prior to assuming a majority stake in world-famous exhaust firm Remus in 2016.
While we don't know for certain that his proposal—or any other potential investor's proposal, for that matter—will be accepted, we do at least know that multiple investors have now thrown their hats in the ring. Undoubtedly, plenty of conversations are now happening behind closed doors ahead of the big meeting on February 25, but that should be when we find out what the true path forward finally looks like.
