BayWa’s Revenue Plunges 34% as Legal Probes Mount and Creditors Circle Ahead of Autumn Deadline

BayWa’s first-quarter revenue collapsed 34% to €2.3 billion, deepening the crisis for the embattled German agribusiness group as it juggles a growing list of legal investigations, creditor write-downs, and a standstill agreement that expires this autumn. The shares closed at €10.65 on Thursday, down nearly 37% since the start of the year and more than 55% from the 52-week high of €23.90 reached in early December 2025. The 12-month slide amounts to a loss of over 46%.

The most immediate drag on turnover came from the sale of the Cefetra Group, but the company also cited poor weather, weak construction activity, and customer hesitation stemming from the broader restructuring uncertainty. The full-year accounts for 2025 have been delayed while the rescue plan is reworked; an auditor will not sign off until the new framework is ready.

BayWa’s legal troubles are escalating on three fronts. The Tübingen law firm TILP is preparing damages claims for shareholders who bought stock between January 2022 and January 2026, citing a BaFin order that found the company omitted material details about a billion-euro loan and the refinancing risks of a €500 million bond in its 2023 management report. Separately, the Munich public prosecutor’s office is investigating former chief executive Klaus Josef Lutz for breach of trust; investigators searched his private home in January 2026. Lutz is cooperating fully with the authorities, a spokesman said, and the presumption of innocence applies. A third inquiry, by the German audit oversight body Apas, targets PricewaterhouseCoopers. BayWa has already put the audit mandate out to tender and plans to propose KPMG for the 2026 accounts.

The creditor side is equally grim. Cooperative primary banks in Bavaria wrote down 60% of their promissory note loan in the 2024 accounts, a hit of €132 million. The regional cooperative association now recommends further impairments; in a worst-case scenario, the entire three-digit-million-euro loan could be written off. The standstill agreement with lenders runs until autumn 2026, which one Austrian creditor, RAI, described as demanding “very rapid, robust results” from the group. The financing gap stands at €2.7 billion.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying BayWa?

The restructuring plan, due to be finalized by mid-2026, targets €4 billion in deleveraging by 2028 — roughly one-third has been achieved so far. It envisages creditor concessions of around €1 billion, the elimination of about 1,300 jobs, and a reduction in annual revenue to €10 billion. The company is racing to present a convincing update before the autumn deadline.

On the operational front, the agricultural trading arm is trying to project business as usual. At the DLG field days in Bernburg from 16 to 18 June, BayWa showcased its latest seed, crop protection, and sustainable farming systems at stand D32, touting just-in-time delivery of fertilisers and crop protection products to farms in northern, eastern, and central Germany. The company runs its own variety trials and experimental fields, and the slogan “Pflanzenbau out of the Box” was meant to reassure farmers that the core competence remains intact. But the market is not buying the narrative.

The stock’s technical indicators paint a bleak picture. The 200-day moving average of €15.42 and the 50-day average of €13.08 both stand far above the current price, signifying a complete detachment from historical valuation levels. The 30-day annualised volatility has surged to 86%, while the relative strength index sits at 35.6 — deep into oversold territory, yet no sustainable recovery has emerged. Every piece of bad news — whether from the courts, the auditor, or the trading floor — threatens to erode the already fragile confidence further, leaving BayWa in a race against time to seal a rescue before the autumn ultimatum arrives.