BayWa Fights on Three Fronts: Criminal Probes, Store Closures, and a Rival’s Advance as Restructuring Deadline Nears

BayWa faces investigations, BaFin reprimand, and competitor Agravis expansion amid restructuring. Stock up 13% from 10-year low but yearly losses top 32%.

BayWa is being torn in opposite directions. As the Munich-based agribusiness group scrambles to keep its restructuring on life support, it faces simultaneous pressure from public prosecutors, a competitor moving onto its home turf, and a legal team gathering disgruntled shareholders. The stock, after plumbing a 10-year low of €11.50 on 27 May, has bounced 13.19% to €13.30, but the recovery is fragile: year-to-date losses still exceed 20%, and over twelve months the shares have shed more than 32%.

Legal storm gathers pace

The Munich I public prosecutor’s office is investigating former chief executives Klaus Josef Lutz and Marcus Pöllinger on suspicion of breach of trust and false representation in the 2023 annual accounts. Both men deny the allegations, and a presumption of innocence applies. Raids were carried out in January. The cloud has also spread to the group’s auditor: the audit oversight body Apas is reviewing whether PricewaterhouseCoopers was correct to grant an unqualified audit opinion for 2023. BayWa itself is exploring claims against PwC and has put the audit mandate out to tender for 2026.

Separately, the law firm TILP is coordinating damages claims from shareholders who bought BayWa stock between January 2022 and January 2026. The action rests on a formal reprimand from BaFin, Germany’s financial watchdog, which found that BayWa omitted material details from its 2023 management report — specifically concerning a billion-euro loan and refinancing risks tied to a €500m bond. BayWa has filed an objection to the BaFin findings.

Closures and a rival’s land grab

While the legal front hardens, the group is physically pulling back. Two more Bavarian locations are shutting: the Regen building materials site on 30 June, and the Hersbruck market on 30 September. Six employees are affected, five of whom will move to nearby branches in Berg-Meilenhofen and Fürth. These closures are part of a broader plan to shutter 26 of BayWa’s roughly 400 outlets by 2027, eliminating 1,300 full-time positions. Already last year the group abandoned outlets in Scheßlitz, Neu-Ulm, Obertraubling, Kronach and Schwandorf.

The retreat is opening space for competitors. Agravis, a rival cooperative, has announced it wants to strengthen its presence in southern Germany as a wholesale partner for seeds and feed — a market that has long been considered BayWa’s stronghold. BayWa acknowledges that customer investment is being held back by uncertainty around its renewable energy subsidiary BayWa r.e. and a generally difficult market environment.

Q1 operational lift, but accounts delayed

The operating picture offers a sliver of better news. Group revenue in the first quarter of 2026 fell to €2.3bn from €3.6bn a year earlier, but adjusted for portfolio sales the decline was a narrower 18.2%. Adjusted EBITDA came in above the targets laid out in the restructuring plan and was clearly ahead of the prior-year period. Yet management cannot deliver the 2025 annual and consolidated accounts within the statutory deadlines; they now expect publication only towards the end of 2026, owing to the ongoing overhaul of the restructuring concept.

Ruins of the old plan

The original rescue blueprint rested on selling 51% of BayWa r.e. for an expected €1.7bn — a deal that collapsed after Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” stripped US subsidies for wind and solar projects, making the subsidiary unmarketable on acceptable terms. A new concept, due by mid-2026, demands painful trade-offs: creditors are being asked to waive roughly €1bn of debt, revenue is projected to shrink to €10bn by 2028, and the 1,300 job cuts already announced will go ahead. The strain on lenders is visible — the Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken wrote down a €220m promissory note loan by 60% in their 2024 accounts. Behind the scenes, a dispute is simmering between the main shareholders and the banks over who shoulders the larger burden.

Next cards to play

One potential asset still on the table is the New Zealand fruit subsidiary T&G Global, in which BayWa holds 74%. Goldman Sachs has been hunting a buyer since March, but the process is being slowed by Hong Kong-based minority shareholder Joy Wing Mau Group, which owns nearly 20%. Any sale proceeds would provide crucial breathing room.

The next fixed milestone is the full 2025 group financial report, which will not land before 30 October 2026 at the earliest. Until then, everything hangs on three variables: the audited accounts, the banks’ sign-off on the revised restructuring plan, and completion of the T&G sale. The standstill agreement with creditors runs only until autumn 2026 — without an extension, the framework agreed in May 2025 loses its legal basis. Time is running on every front.