An interesting development happening in the consumer electronics space.
Varta AG - makers of the battery for the AirBud (.... & if you recall David's comment regarding Airbuds in the 18 minute interview), are looking at a restructuring deal where Porsche come on as a significant shareholder (32%).
Alas despite revenues of 900m Euro's and 4000+ staff Varta was suffering from massive debt, high raw materials costs and recently a cyber attack which halted operations.
Its largest shareholder and Porsche will be injecting cash and Debt will be slashed.
Imo Varta may be (actually probably is) one of the Consumer Electronics companies we are dealing with and are keen not only to improve performance of their batteries but cut the raw material costs going into them. This restructuring deal and cash injection will now give them the ability to move forward with confidence.
The financial performance of "Varta" has been significantly affected by the rise in the price of raw materials and energy, increasing competition and a cyber attack, which disrupted production this year.
Porsche sees this investment as a strategic step to ensure a reliable supply of high-performance lithium-ion batteries for its range of electric cars. Given the automotive industry's rapid transition to electric mobility, it is important to provide the best battery technology to remain competitive.
Porsche predicts that by 2030, 80% of the cars it delivers will be fully electric. In 2023, the proportion of electric cars in the range of vehicles supplied by Porsche was 12,7%.
(20min delay)