Bankrupt Lightyear lost 64 million euros last year

Lightyear partially went bankrupt in January and now a curator is busy mapping out the financial situation. In addition, annual figures emerge that do not lie. Lightyear posted a loss of €63.9 million last year. It also has a debt of about €12 million, according to the bankruptcy report RTL Nieyours message. One of the causes of the large loss was a doubling of the number of employees. As a result, wage costs rose sharply. According to Lightyear’s management, the fact that the company was unable to attract new financiers also played a role.

The loss at Lightyear has increased in recent years. For example, the loss in 2020 was still limited to €5 million, while the company had a turnover of €1.5 million. Two years later, that loss was therefore almost thirteen times as large, without a return of 1 euro in income. Bankruptcy was declared on 26 January. At that time, the company had 622 employees. Their contracts have been cancelled. There is also a debt of €3.65 million with the tax authorities and about 150 creditors together still have more than €8 million in credit.

Restart still uncertain

The company is trying to make a restart, it was announced at the end of February. All attention is focused on the production of the cheaper Lightyear 2. The owners of Lightyear have already managed to gather €8 million to get the restart started, but more money is therefore needed for a successful restart. In addition, the curator appoints RTL News that important assets, including production assets at manufacturer Valmet in Finland, also belong to the estate of the bankrupt part of the company. On the one hand, these resources can be used to repay debts, but on the other hand they are necessary for the restart. The trustee needs more time to see if and how this can be resolved and there is no green light for a restart for the time being.