A boost for Agrilight, Hortilux negotiations still ongoing

A restart has been arranged for Agrilight, a Dutch supplier of agricultural lighting, following the bankruptcy of its parent group in the Netherlands. Negotiations on a possible restart for Hortilux and the related producer AP Nederland are still ongoing, according to the first public bankruptcy report.

Agrilight will become part of HATO Agricultural Lighting. Both companies are active in lighting for livestock housing.

Acquisition candidates
Following the bankruptcy in mid-September, about 75 parties were approached about a possible restart. Eleven of them requested and received additional information. According to the report by trustee Stefan van Wijk of BUREN, he held multiple discussions with these eleven parties.

“We held more detailed talks with four serious takeover candidates, and a few of them improved their bids once or several times,” the trustee states in the report. He is still negotiating with the most promising candidates.

The trustee previously said the interested parties came from the same industry, but that some investment firms had also come forward that might want to take over the entire group. Now that Agrilight has been restarted separately, that option appears to be off the table.

Dool Industries went bankrupt last month. Its operational activities were divided among three companies: Hortilux Schréder, Agrilight and AP Nederland. The other entities in the group, Dool Industries, Dool Industries Holding and Lights Interaction Agro, have no operational activities.

Lawsuits
A first bankruptcy report has been published for each of the three companies. The trustee does not yet share anything about the causes of the bankruptcy. As is standard, this is still under investigation.

The trustee is also reviewing two legal cases that were pending at the time of the bankruptcy, one involving an ornamental grower and one involving a greenhouse builder, according to the report.

Creditors
By the time the first bankruptcy report was published, 33 unsecured creditors had filed claims in the Hortilux bankruptcy, totaling 8.6 million.