Swiss investor's plan to rescue Varta battery maker clouded by questions

A Swiss investor, Pino Sergio, has emerged as a potential rescuer for the embattled German battery manufacturer Varta, a company that has fallen from being an Apple supplier to a company on the brink of collapse. However, Sergio's business practices and the low-profile nature of his investment firm, Allswiss AG, have prompted skepticism.

Varta's financial woes stem primarily from the loss of Apple as its key client. For years, Varta produced batteries for Apple's AirPods, but the tech giant has shifted to cheaper Asian suppliers. This loss has forced Varta to cease button cell production in Germany, resulting in hundreds of job losses. The company is also burdened by hundreds of millions of euros in debt, accumulated for production expansion, which is now unsustainable.

Sergio, through his company Allswiss AG, which has a registered address in a Schaffhausen office building shared with numerous other firms, has expressed his intention to take over Varta's debts totaling 300 million euros. He plans to inject new life into the traditional German company with new technology, new factories, and the creation of 2,000 additional jobs. The goal is to enable Varta to enter mass production of sodium-ion batteries, making it competitive against Chinese manufacturers.

Despite the hopeful pronouncements, questions linger about Sergio and Allswiss AG. The company's official seat is in a modest office building in Schaffhausen, where an employee of the trust company managing the mailbox stated they could not provide any information about Allswiss AG. This lack of transparency surrounding the investor and his background has fueled concerns about the viability of his rescue plan for Varta, which employs over 4,000 people and faces potential liquidation if a turnaround is not achieved.