Automotive components supplier Geiger technologies (Garmisch-Partenkirchen / Germany; www.geigertechnik.de) – former Geiger technik – applied on 14 November 2008 to open insolvency proceedings in the municipal court of Weilheim / Germany, despite being acquired by a subsidiary of the Indian company Sintex Industries (Kalol; www.sintex-india.com) in July 2008 – see Plasteurope.com of 04.08.2008. According to reports in a Munich newspaper, Sintex failed to make certain payments that had been agreed. The sum involved is thought to be EUR 3.2m. Attorney Martin Prager from Pluta Rechtsanwälte (Munich / Germany; www.pluta.net) has been appointed provisional insolvency administrator. Prager also served as insolvency administrator in the case of mobile phone manufacturer BenQ Mobile (Munich / Germany; www.benq.de).

Geiger has two injection moulding plants and a mould manufacturing company in Germany and a plant in Poland with a total of more the 850 employees. The Polish company has so far not been affected by the insolvency. “It is in the customers’ interest that the company continues to operate,” said Geiger managing director Olaf Matthei. Prager has already started analysing the situation. “We are working to keep the company going, but it is still too early to make any predictions,” he said.

Sintex acquired a 90% stake in Geiger for EUR 35.6m in July 2008. The Indian company has since invested EUR 18.7m. Although Sintex reported good performance across its operations at the beginning of October 2008 in its second quarter business report, its share price has fallen by more than 50% in the last six months.