Fanatec Mother Endor Goes Bankrupt

German company Endor AG, the company behind the Fanatec brand of sim racing peripherals, has filed for insolvency. Restructuring has failed. Potential buyers are being sought.

Endor AG (DE0005491666) has filed for insolvency with the Landshut Local Court due to over-indebtedness and inability to pay. The foreign subsidiaries are not affected. The attempt to restructure the company in accordance with the German Stabilisation and Restructuring Act (StaRUG) has failed. Endor sells its products under the Fanatec brand via e-commerce, primarily to end customers in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and Japan. According to the latest figures, the company employs 147 people.

The Management Board believes that the crisis was caused by "a number of poor management decisions" in recent years. Examples include the oversized construction of the company's new headquarters, miscalculated chip and merchandise orders that led to high write-downs, and the failure to implement processes and systems worth millions. The Group's liabilities have now risen to more than 95 million Euros, with an annual turnover of around 100 Million Euros, this has led to over-indebtedness.

Regarding the one request to open insolvency proceedings, the following is stated: "The reason for this was the request by the former CEO and majority shareholder to convene an extraordinary general meeting in order to prevent a reorganisation under the StaRUG without presenting a viable alternative scenario. At the same time, negotiations with the majority shareholder on a financial reorganisation involving all shareholders have been taking place in recent weeks. However, these negotiations had to be broken off without result due to unrealistic demands. The strategic investor Corsair then decided not to make any further payments from the bridge financing, as the ongoing disruptions made a reorganisation under the StaRUG impossible. The lending banks have also rejected further financing due to the over-indebtedness."

The Board regrets that the negotiations with the strategic investor, which were already at an advanced stage, could not be concluded. As part of the insolvency proceedings, a further open-ended rescue process will be initiated. The company's management is confident that a potential buyer will be found. The Management Board assumes that Corsair is still interested in acquiring Endor. The company will continue its business operations during the insolvency proceedings.

Andres Ruff, CEO of Endor, said: "We would like to thank our customers, employees and business partners for their trust and support over the past months. As part of the insolvency proceedings, we will continue the restructuring and work at full speed to reorganise the company. We are confident that we will emerge stronger from this situation and return to a sustainable, profitable growth path."

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