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The insolvent Nobiskrug shipyard on the Kiel Canal in Rendsburg is for sale.
The company, founded in 1905 and most recently part of the German Naval Yards shipyard association, filed for bankruptcy in mid-April.
Nobiskrug specializes in the construction of yachts over 60 meters in length.
The most famous Nobiskrug ship of recent times was the 143 meter long sailing yacht “White Pearl” with its 90 meter high masts, which was delivered in 2017.
In the 2020 financial year, Nobiskrug had around 330 employees and generated sales of around 125 million euros.
"My goal is to find an investor by the end of June who will continue Nobiskrug in order to continue building ships in Rendsburg with the existing workforce," said the provisional insolvency administrator Hendrik Gridmann from the Hamburg law firm Reimer on Thursday. "According to market information, there is great interest in some shipbuilding companies in eliminating capacity bottlenecks through an acquisition," said grid man. The reasons for insolvency at Nobiskrug are "less of a structural nature", but rather lie "rather in project cancellations and delays in projects". The shipyard is to be sold completely including all infrastructure and trademark rights.
Timo Kless, partner at the management consultancy PwC, is currently exploring the market and intends to send detailed information about Nobiskrug to around 100 investors worldwide in the coming days.
"We are confident that Nobiskrug will be of particular interest to other shipbuilders and players from the maritime industry in order to be able to use the location and the know-how of the employees in the future," he says.
Insolvency administrator grid man wants to handle the sale in June and transfer the yard to a new investor on July 1st.
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The French-Lebanese investor Iskandar Safa had built up the German Naval Yards network with the three shipyards in Kiel Gaarden, Lindenau at the Kiel exit of the Kiel Canal and Nobiskrug. Its main focus is the construction of naval ships. Safas Holding Privinvest had invested around 180 million euros in Nobiskrug in recent years, according to German Naval Yards. German Naval Yards announced two weeks ago that Nobiskrug's bankruptcy would not affect the operations of the two shipyards in Kiel. "I regret the development at Nobiskrug, but at the same time I hope that the insolvency proceedings will be an opportunity to reorganize the company in a quiet environment and thus to preserve Nobiskrug," said Jörg Herwig,Managing Director of German Naval Yards Kiel and the Lindenau shipyard.
As a result of the corona pandemic, German shipbuilding is once again under great pressure. According to the shipbuilding association VSM, incoming orders were 80 percent lower in 2020 than in 2019. Jobs are being cut at both the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg and the three MV shipyards in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Both companies manufacture cruise ships. The Lloyd shipyard in Bremerhaven, which also belongs to MV Werften, is to be sold. If this does not succeed, there is a threat of closure. MV Werften is owned by the Malaysian tourism and gaming group Genting.