Gerresheimer’s 2026 Collision Course: Impairments, Regulators, and a Margin-Sapping Divestiture

Pharmaceutical packaging giant Gerresheimer enters a critical year with a US glass plant shutdown, a BaFin accounting investigation, and the planned sale of its profitable Centor unit.

Gerresheimer has entered one of the most daunting phases in its recent history, with a trio of high-stakes events all bearing down on the same calendar year. The pharmaceutical packaging specialist is simultaneously closing a US glass plant, fighting off a BaFin investigation, and pursuing the sale of its most profitable unit — moves that together will determine whether the credibility gap that has crushed its stock can be bridged.

The most concrete blow landed this week with the announcement that the company’s glassworks in Chicago Heights, Illinois, will cease operations by 30 September 2026. Some 172 positions will be eliminated as production of pharmaceutical molded glass shifts to facilities in Italy and India. Management expects impairment charges of €220 million to €240 million in the 2025 annual report, a write-down that underscores the scale of the restructuring. Gerresheimer described the closure as part of a broader cost-reduction and performance-improvement program.

That impairment charge will land just as regulators intensify their scrutiny of the company’s books. The German financial watchdog BaFin identified specific indications of potential accounting violations and on 6 March 2026 opened a formal examination of the consolidated interim financial statements covering the period from 1 December 2024 to 31 May 2025. The investigation centres on three areas: the risk assessment of the Bormioli financing arrangement, possible unrecorded impairments — notably in the Advanced Technologies segment, which carries assets worth €196.5 million — and revenue recognition under bill-and-hold agreements. A preliminary inspection had already been launched on 18 September 2025 and was later expanded. Also on the table are leasing liabilities with a book value of €65.5 million and capitalised development costs of €29.4 million.

The regulatory heat extends to the external auditor. The audit oversight body APAS is probing KPMG’s work after the firm issued an unqualified audit opinion for the 2024 annual accounts despite €35 million in contested bill-and-hold transactions. Gerresheimer has since brought in Grant Thornton as a second audit firm to help speed up the clearing of the books. Meanwhile, shareholder protection group DSW is examining possible damages claims against former chief executive Dietmar Siemssen and former finance chief Bernd Metzner, focusing on alleged IFRS violations tied to those same bill-and-hold deals in fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

To ease the financial strain, Gerresheimer is pushing ahead with the sale of its US subsidiary Centor Inc., which makes packaging systems for prescription drugs. Morgan Stanley has been mandated to handle the process, and the company reports that the number of interested parties has already reached double digits. Centor was carried at €292 million on the books at the end of 2024, and the sale is expected to close in 2026. Proceeds would bolster the balance sheet, but the move carries a painful trade-off: Centor operates with above-average margins, and losing its earnings contribution could further dent the profitability of the remaining group.

The company’s creditors have granted some breathing room. Schuldschein investors approved a deadline extension by a 96% majority, accepting delivery of the audited annual financial statements by 30 September 2026 instead of earlier. Key leverage covenants have been suspended through the end of the third quarter. That gives management until June 2026 — when the audited annual and consolidated accounts are slated for release, followed shortly by the quarterly update — to produce a clean audit certificate and restore confidence.

Operationally, Gerresheimer is sticking to its forecasts. For 2026 it still targets revenues of €2.3 billion to €2.4 billion and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18% to 19%. But the market remains deeply sceptical. The shares last changed hands at €24.90, down roughly 11% on the week and nearly 59% lower than a year ago. With short interest standing at about 11.4% of registered shares, the stock remains acutely vulnerable to any further bad news. Until the accounting questions are resolved and the audit signed off, every date on the 2026 calendar looks like a potential flashpoint.