The financial rescue of the ailing battery manufacturer Varta at the expense of the existing shareholders can go ahead.

The Stuttgart Regional Court has rejected all appeals against the plan and has not allowed a new appeal, the company from Ellwangen in Swabia announced on Thursday. "The restructuring plan is therefore legally binding." Varta is now owned by the previous majority shareholder Michael Tojner and the car manufacturer Porsche, who together are injecting 60 million euros of fresh capital. Banks and other creditors, who are waiving 255 million euros - i.e. more than half of their money - will participate economically in the future success of the company.

The existing Varta shareholders will go away empty-handed, their shares will become worthless. The shares will be removed from the share price "promptly", explained Varta. Despite the development that had been foreseeable for months, the shares had remained at prices between 1.50 and 2.00 euros after shareholder advocates, restructuring consultants and lawyers gave shareholders hope that they could still participate in a rescue capital increase. On Thursday, Varta shares fell by twelve percent to 1.33 euros.

Varta had overstretched itself with its expansion and got into difficulties. In order to prevent insolvency, the Management Board took advantage of the StaRUG Restructuring Act, which makes it possible to force out the previous owners. Porsche wanted to use its involvement to secure the supply of batteries from the former Varta subsidiary V4Drive, which the car manufacturer needs for its hybrid sports cars. As part of the restructuring, Porsche AG took over 70 percent of V4Drive.

(Report by Alexander Hübner. Edited by Olaf Brenner. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)