FTI and Galeria: Plus for taxpayers – the astonishing outcomes of the Corona assist fund | EUROtoday

Status: 19:44 | Reading time: 4 minutes

DThe division retailer chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof has filed for chapter a number of occasions up to now. This week, the tourism group FTI introduced that it was now not solvent. Both corporations had acquired vital state assist from the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) through the Corona pandemic.

Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof acquired a complete of 680 billion euros within the type of subordinated loans and silent participations. The three state assist packages for FTI Touristik GmbH added as much as a quantity of 595 million euros. The majority of the cash is misplaced.

But the WSF, which was launched in March 2020, is just not but a billion-dollar grave. The fund is definitely nonetheless within the black. As the annual monetary statements for the years 2020 to 2023 present, the underside line remains to be a surplus of simply over 160 million euros. In explicit, one transaction by the fund, which was designed as a “lifeline” for giant corporations, proved to be extraordinarily profitable for taxpayers.

additionally learn

A complete of 25 corporations had used funds from the WSF through the pandemic. That was fewer than anticipated. Many events had been delay by the excessive rates of interest. Ultimately, the state paid out solely 6.4 billion euros from the core of the fund – the 100 billion euros supplied for direct capital injections.

While Lufthansa and TUI, for instance, have already paid again the help in full, plus curiosity, Galeria and FTI usually are not the one corporations which have needed to write off funds that had been paid out. This was additionally crucial, for instance, for the style firm Orsay, the shoe retailer Görtz and the automotive provider Frimo. In these instances, the quantities concerned had been comparatively low, within the double-digit tens of millions.

In the present FTI case, authorities circles assume that 84 p.c of the funds paid out have been misplaced. That can be 500 million euros. The incontrovertible fact that the anticipated loss is just not even greater is as a result of FTI has already paid again cash in recent times.

Lost funds from FTI chapter already included in steadiness sheet

Since the three stabilization measures had been granted in 2020 and 2021, the WSF has “received returns amounting to almost three-digit millions – consisting of repayments and interest,” the accountable federal finance company mentioned.

It additionally introduced that almost all of the full 595 million euros granted had already been written off in recent times. It is subsequently already included within the fund's present, total optimistic enterprise figures as much as the tip of 2023.

The scenario is comparable at Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof. Here, too, a big a part of the help has already been written off. The finance company additionally speaks of returns within the “low three-digit million amount”, consisting of repayments, curiosity and the conclusion of collateral. Last 12 months, the WSF had, amongst different issues, begun to unload holdings within the division retailer group that served as collateral.

This doesn’t change the truth that the state and thus the taxpayer are shedding some huge cash by way of the help to each corporations. The incontrovertible fact that the fund remains to be within the black is as a result of state's usually excessive rates of interest and above all to a cope with Lufthansa shares. The airline was the primary firm to obtain assist in the summertime of 2020. At the time, the state accepted measures amounting to virtually six billion euros – no firm acquired extra.

This included the acquisition of Lufthansa shares for 306 million euros. The WSF later bought this bundle once more in levels – and at a worth effectively above the preliminary buy worth. In the tip, the fund made a revenue of 760 million euros from this alone.

It stays to be seen how a lot cash shall be returned from the businesses sooner or later. According to the finance company, a lot of the measures had been granted for a interval of six to seven years. Ultimately, it won’t be clear till the tip of the last decade whether or not the taxpayer will really get off as flippantly because it at present seems to be, regardless of the most important bankruptcies of Galeria and FTI.