Schaeffler brings fresh money through capital increase

As a supplier company with a focus on the automotive industry, Schaeffler is currently not in bed. Now the company wants to get fresh money to invest in future fields. The shareholders should approve in September.

Herzogenaurach (dpa) - The automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler, which slipped into the red during the Corona crisis, wants to bring fresh money into the coffers through a capital increase.

The company, which is listed in the SDax small-cap index, invites its shareholders to an extraordinary online general meeting on September 15, at which a vote is to be held on the creation of authorized capital for up to 200 million new shares, as Schaeffler announced in Herzogenaurach, Franconia.

"It is now important to make the company even more future-proof and to supplement the portfolio where it makes sense," said Schaeffler CEO Klaus Rosenfeld of the German press agency. He named fields of activity such as wind power, hydrogen technology and e-mobility as possibilities for conceivable acquisitions.

"We have come through the crisis relatively well so far," said Rosenfeld. Schaeffler did not need any government aid, nor did it incur any new debts. "We now want to drive the transformation of the Schaeffler Group forward," he emphasized. "We will lead this company successfully through the crisis and we will emerge from it as winners."

The owner family Schaeffler is fully behind the company, said Rosenfeld. The family currently holds the company's 500 million common shares, 100 percent of the voting rights. The current 166 million non-voting preference shares are in free float. In the event of a positive resolution, the Schaeffler family can also access up to 200 million new preference shares.

Schaeffler initially struggled with the sales crisis in the automotive industry and, like many suppliers in Germany, had to implement a restructuring program. Then there was the corona crisis. There were losses in the first two quarters of the current year. Sales collapsed in the first six months by 21.8 percent to 5.57 billion euros, the net loss for the group slipped to 353 million euros, after a profit of 273 in the same period of the previous year.

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