Very good news for Polar Mohr. The 117-year-old German finishing machine manufacturer is emerging from court proceedings. The Austrian financial investor Sol Capital Management has announced that it is buying back all the shares of the group that belonged to the Mohr family. The new owner retains the 300 employees. Polar Mohr, which has a turnover of 42 million euros, now operates under the name Polar Cutting Technologies.
Since August, the German family-owned group specializing in cutting machines was, at its request, in a so-called protection shield procedure, the equivalent of the safeguard procedure in France. "Delivery bottlenecks have recently led to production cuts and threatened the company's solvency" explained the group in November on the occasion of the appointment of a new CFO.
Sol Capital Management specializes in investing in companies undergoing restructuring, complex spin-offs and other special situations. The Vienna-based company says it wants to invest heavily in the company. Thomas Raab, managing director of Polar Cutting Technologies, adds: "Our position as an industry leader is strengthened by this new start and the additional equity from Sol Capital." He intended to deploy new automation solutions.
In view of this agreement with Sol Capital Management, the German manufacturer has sold its premises of about 50,000 m 2 located in Hofheim to a developer, in order to build a new plant in the region that will meet the current production requirements.
Heidelberg, a long-time Polar partner, continues to sell and service the equipment worldwide.
Dienst, which also belonged to the Polar Group and, with about 70 employees, manufactures packaging machines mainly for the frozen pizza industry, remains in a protective shield procedure. "Discussions with interested parties are ongoing."
