The Association of Bavarian Cooperatives (GVB) has dismissed fears that the state's primary cooperative banks could find themselves in trouble as a result of the crisis at agricultural trading group Baywa.

According to Stefan Müller, the new Chairman of the Board of Management and President of the association, the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken in Bavaria would be able to cope well with any potential burdens in connection with the rescue and reorganisation of the company.

„The Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken would be well positioned in the event of a need for value adjustments in relation to the Baywa investment,“ the former CSU member of the Bundestag said in a late September press conference at the GVB headquarters in Munich. Müller, who officially took over his new position from his predecessor Gregor Scheller on 1 August this year, added that Baywa's involvement had „no influence“ on the „solidity of the institutions“.

The GVB represents, among others, the 184 primary banks of the financial association in Bavaria. These are Baywa's largest single shareholder via the investment vehicle Bayerische Raiffeisen-Beteiligungs-AG (BRB) with 33.8%. According to the GVB, almost 90% of these banks hold shares in Baywa. The largest shareholder in the listed company within this group is likely to be Meine VR eG in Rosenheim. In terms of total assets, it is the largest institution in the Bavarian cooperative family. Its CEO, Wolfgang Altmüller, is also a member of the supervisory boards of Baywa and BRB; at BRB, he heads the supervisory board. Müller did not provide any information on the shareholdings of the individual GVB member institutions when asked.

Together with the largest Baywa creditor banks, including DZ Bank, which belongs to the cooperative sector, the Bavarian credit cooperatives put together a rescue package, including a bridging loan of 550 million euros, in mid-August. The cooperative group had previously publicly declared its intention to support Baywa for reasons of solidarity within the cooperative family.

In an initial draft of a restructuring report, the management consultants commissioned by Roland Berger recently declared the Baywa Group to be fundamentally capable of being restructured under certain conditions. The latter include, in particular, the sale of subsidiaries, and a bundle of cost-cutting measures. Baywa recently announced this on an ad hoc basis. This essentially amounts to a break-up of the conglomerate. Baywa is likely to concentrate on its core activities in future.

The Baywa management, the anchor shareholder BRB and the creditor banks, which also include LBBW and HVB, are still negotiating the proposed reorganisation concept from Roland Berger and the restructuring expenses to be derived from it. Should the restructuring plan also lead to goodwill amortisation, this could necessitate an impairment loss at BRB in relation to its Baywa stake. The consolidated financial statements for 2024, which are expected to be available at the end of March 2025, should provide more details.