Beleaguered packaging group Gerresheimer has secured additional time from its banks and promissory note (Schuldschein) holders to resolve its accounting issues. The company announced late Wednesday in Düsseldorf that its lenders, along with 96 percent of its promissory note creditors, have extended the deadline for the submission of the audited annual financial statements for the 2024/25 fiscal year (ending November) until the end of September. Under normal circumstances, a delay in filing the balance sheet would grant creditors the right to accelerate loans and bonds. Furthermore, the banks have waived their termination rights until the end of August in the event that Gerresheimer's leverage exceeds the limits permitted by its debt covenants.

Gerresheimer has been locked in a months-long dispute with its auditors over correct accounting treatments. Last autumn, the financial regulator BaFin accused the company of accounting errors. An auditing firm is currently reviewing transactions from 2024 and 2025 and their recording in the financial statements. This process is expected to delay the preparation of the annual accounts until June. Due to this delay, Gerresheimer was recently removed from the SDax small-cap index. In its statement, the company maintained that it still aims to finalize the balance sheet by the end of June.

"We are very pleased with the broad support from our lenders. This allows us to continue the transparent processing of the business transactions identified in our investigations and to finalize our 2025 annual and consolidated financial statements," explained CFO Wolf Lehmann. "With the sale of Centor, we also have a clear strategy to significantly improve our capital structure before the end of this year."

Gerresheimer put its subsidiary Centor, which manufactures packaging systems for prescription drugs in the U.S., up for sale in February to reduce its debt burden. Gerresheimer had acquired the U.S. firm eleven years ago for 725 million dollars. The investment bank Morgan Stanley is tasked with finding a new owner this year. Gerresheimer reported that there is a double-digit number of interested parties. The company added that the new fiscal year has developed in line with expectations across the group. "The order situation is solid."

(Report by Alexander Hübner. Edited by Scot W. Stevenson. For inquiries, please contact our editorial office at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)