German publisher Holtzbrink buys twelve units of insolvent PIN Group
Georg von Holtzbrinck has bought major parts of the insolvent mail company PIN Group in a deal making it one of Deutsche Post’s biggest competitors, according to various media reports.
The insolvency administrator of PIN Holding, Bruno M. Kübler, said that the sale to Holtzbrinck will help preserve a considerable part of PIN’s network but did not reveal any financial details. The transaction is pending regulatory approval by the Federal Cartel Office (FCO), which is considered rather a formality.
In total, Holtzbrink has taken over twelve units of the troubled PIN Group with a 100 pct stake in six PIN companies and a major stake in the remaining six. It acquired PIN Mail in Berlin, eight PIN units in Brandenburg, Freiburg-based Arriva as well as Main-Post Logistik and Main-Sorter-Service in Wuerzburg. These units are located in the metropolitan area of Berlin, in the five states in the former German Democratic Republic, in Lower Franconia which is one of Bavaria’s administrative regions, and the metropolitan area of Freiburg.
The acquired companies employ a total of 2,500 workers. In the meantime, Kuebler is reportedly in negotiations with potential investors to buy the remaining 20 units, which count 1,200 workers.
Georg von Holtzbrinck has bought major parts of the insolvent mail company PIN Group in a deal making it one of Deutsche Post’s biggest competitors, according to various media reports.
The insolvency administrator of PIN Holding, Bruno M. Kübler, said that the sale to Holtzbrinck will help preserve a considerable part of PIN’s network but did not reveal any financial details. The transaction is pending regulatory approval by the Federal Cartel Office (FCO), which is considered rather a formality.
In total, Holtzbrink has taken over twelve units of the troubled PIN Group with a 100 pct stake in six PIN companies and a major stake in the remaining six. It acquired PIN Mail in Berlin, eight PIN units in Brandenburg, Freiburg-based Arriva as well as Main-Post Logistik and Main-Sorter-Service in Wuerzburg. These units are located in the metropolitan area of Berlin, in the five states in the former German Democratic Republic, in Lower Franconia which is one of Bavaria’s administrative regions, and the metropolitan area of Freiburg.
The acquired companies employ a total of 2,500 workers. In the meantime, Kuebler is reportedly in negotiations with potential investors to buy the remaining 20 units, which count 1,200 workers.
The PIN units are expected to be increasingly interconnected with Holtzbrinck’s logistics firms in future with mail logistics complementing and strengthening the media and services range of the publisher’s regional media companies.
Holtzbrinck helped to found PIN initially, but later sold its shares to the German major publisher Axel Springer. However, Axel Springer shut off financing the mail-delivery unit after some time claiming the new pay rules introduced by the German Parliament will deprive PIN of any chance to successfully compete with giant Deutsche Post in the long run.
Consequently, PIN filed for insolvency in end-January 2008 and many publishers bought back their regional units including the publishing group Madsack GmbH & Co. KG buying PIN Mail in Hanover in April this year. In addition, about half of the former 11,400 group employees had lost their jobs due to the crisis.
