Jul. 2012. With the looming threat of insolvency, Konarka Technologies GmbH, based in Nuremberg, has filed for bankruptcy with Nuremberg District Court’s bankruptcy court. Attorney Alexander Kubusch of national German insolvency administration firm CURATOR AG has been appointed as the preliminary insolvency administrator.
Konarka Technologies GmbH, which currently has eleven permanent staff on its payroll, is active in the field of innovative photovoltaic technologies. Its main development areas are cutting-edge technologies for the integration of flexible and transparent surfaces for the generation of solar power. The German company is a 100% subsidiary of Konarka Technologies Inc., based in the US. The Konarka Group is considered to be the global market leader in printed organic photovoltaic (OPV) applications. Within the Group, the German GmbH is responsible for research and European sales. In addition, all relevant OEM customer relationships, with reputable and international groups from the automotive, components, and electronics industries, for example, are maintained at the Nuremberg site. The German company has been forced to file for bankruptcy, since the parent company in the US is undergoing liquidation proceedings pursuant to Chapter 7 of the US Bankruptcy Code and deliveries of products can consequently no longer be expected from the US.
“We can sustain the R&D work in Germany without any difficulties at the moment. Nonetheless, our objective must be to find a suitable investor as quickly as possible who’s prepared to get the company’s first-class development work back on track again and to guarantee its production operations and future developments in the long term, because a successful transfer of the US parent group is currently still very much up in the air,” says Attorney Kubusch, following an initial analysis of the situation. Looking to the future, he adds: “If, however, we are able to find an investor and also keep the existing, as well as government research contracts in the company, I have every confidence that the company will be able to keep going long term at its Nuremberg site.”
