PIN CEO Günther Thiel resigns
After Axel Springer AG cut off funding for its subsidiary PIN Group, there was talk of a possible management buyout by a group led by PIN CEO Thiel. However, he has now stepped down, and the German mail delivery company is facing bankruptcy.
Günther Thiel, Managing Director of the private German mail delivery company PIN, announced his resignation on Tuesday. At the same time, he withdrew his offer to take over the 64 percent stake in PIN held by Axel-Springer-Verlag. Thiel cited the "communicative behavior" of the Axel Springer publishing house as the reason, as reported by Financial Times Deutschland. The background to the crisis is the decision by the Springer publishing house a few days ago to stop all payments to its subsidiary (see: Axel Springer is no longer putting money into PIN Group for the time being / http://www.werbewoche.ch/newsmail071214_springer.werbewoche). Thiel had subsequently offered to take over Springer's share in the ailing company for one euro, which Matthias Döpfner, CEO of the publishing house, rejected as a provocation. With his investment company Rosalia, Thiel holds 10 percent of the share capital and is therefore one of several minority shareholders. If neither he nor other shareholders put money into the company, PIN will have to file for insolvency in the next few days. This would mean the failure of the first attempt in Germany to establish a nationwide private mail delivery company.
