A German court opened insolvency proceedings for Solibro Hi-Tech GmbH on Friday, with attorney Henning Schorisch chosen to serve as the preliminary administrator.
Schorisch informed employees about the proceedings on Friday. He reportedly said that employees’ wages would be secured for a period of three months via funds provided for the insolvency proceedings.
Salaries have not yet been paid for December, pv magazine has learned. The company, which is a unit of Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, ordered a two-week shutdown over the Christmas and New Year period. Management control of Solibro Hi-Tech GmbH is currently in the hands of Kai-Ye Fung, who has officially filed for insolvency, according to a company announcement.
Solibro GmbH applied for insolvency in August 2019, with Schorisch also serving as provisional administrator. At the time, Hanergy t0ld pv magazine that it had not held a stake in Solibro GmbH since December 2015, but acknowledged that it owned parts of two subcontractors, Solibro Hi Tech GmbH and Solibro Research.
However, Hanergy still claims on its European website that Solibro is a Hanergy group company. In addition, there are a number of other links between Hanergy and Solibro GmbH – even for periods after December 2015.
Solibro GmbH halted business operations after the opening of the regular insolvency proceedings in November. A restructuring proposal failed because shareholders only provided a small portion of the promised funds.
A number of Hanergy companies have encountered difficulties in recent weeks. The group’s U.S.-based Alta Devices unit, for example, recently laid off 250 employees without warning and appears to be in serious financial difficulty.
