At least two investment firms are said to be interested in acquiring Kettler, the German fitness manufacturer that became insolvent earlier this month. Some German newspaper reports indicate that it would take about €40 million to restructure the company, which may involve the sale of shares in Kettler in exchange for financing.
The proceedings; which started earlier this month, allow the management to remain in place to work on a restructuring plan, together with an administrator from White & Case, while Kettler continues to operate normally. The company clearly indicated that the procedure was meant to avoid an unwanted sell-out to an investment company.
Among the parties involved is the Carlyle Group, which has agreed to take over debts of about €12 million owed by Kettler to Commerzbank in April. Tempus Capital, a private equity company based in Frankfurt, confirmed that it was interested in Kettler, indicating that it wants to acquire the entire company as an investment to be restructured. Trisport, which is Kettler's distributor in Switzerland, has also been named as a potential savior.
Kettler is owned by the family of the late Heinz Kettler, who established the company in the post-war years. His daughter Karin Kettler, who took over the management when he passed away in 2005, has been struggling to run the business profitably and apparently failed to implement recommendations issued by several advisers – such as moving production from Germany to the Far East, particularly for garden furniture and toys. Die Welt reported that the company suffered a loss of about €6 million on sales of €200 million last year, down from more than 500 million Deutschemark 15 years ago. Kettler employs about 1,100 people.
The insolvency has caused consternation in Germany, where Kettler is an iconic brand of fitness and leisure equipment – with thousands of consumers fondly remembering their Kettcars or table tennis games. In the bicycle industry the company is more famous for coming up with the first aluminum-frame bicycles in 1977. Critics have been quoted as saying that Kettler's innovative drive has been weaker in the last years.
