Following our story yesterday about Loewe filing for bankruptcy, the German high-end television manufacturer has reached out to us through its UK PR agency to provide further clarification on the situation.
Three months ago, Loewe applied for a form of creditor protection under German law termed ‘Schutzschirmverfahren’ which has now lapsed, causing the company to automatically move onto the next stage which is an insolvency process. In a statement to HDTVTest, the firm stressed that this insolvency process – known as ‘Insolvenzverfahren in Eigenverwaltung’ in Germany – is entirely pre-planned and self-administered, i.e. it’s initiated by Loewe’s executive board (rather than imposed by a court order) to buy time for securing new investment to complete its strategic restructuring.
As mentioned in our original story, Loewe has received a number of written offers from several investors, and is highly confident it will reach an agreement with one of them before the end of this month. Loewe’s CEO Matthias Harsch said that the business entity remains fully operational, and the company will continue to fulfil all of its obligations including provision of warranty cover, customer service and merchandise supply.
Looking forward, Loewe expects to emerge from the restructuring process a stronger and fitter though leaner company, helped by its strategic technology and marketing partnership with Chinese state-owned conglomerate, a dramatically reduced cost base, as well as robust new strategy. The German luxury AV brand will continue to release new products, with some exciting audio and TV launches lined up for the final quarter of this year and into 2014.
Note: We apologise for factual errors in yesterday’s story, and wish Loewe well with its restructuring process.
