Lilium probably still in financial difficulties

According to a report in the German business paper WirtschaftsWoche, or WiWo, as it is also known, the transfer of Lilium’s property and assets to the new GmbH planned for 20 January has still not been completed, although it is only a ‘formality’. This means that the management currently has no access to the assets – and money is missing from important accounts. As a result, no salaries have yet been paid for January.

According to the report, the background to this is the renaming of the buyer company from MUC Mobile Uplift Corporation GmbH to Lilium Aerospace GmbH. “The employment contracts also run under this new name. A long rat’s tail that entails problems,” WiWo wrote. The magazine has an email from the evening of 29 January in which staff were informed that salary payments for January had not yet been initiated. According to the report, the sender himself only found out on 27 January that the funds had not yet been received. This was expected for 29 January but did not happen.

And the money has still not been received or paid out to the employees. “Some have stopped working and won’t start again until they are paid,” WiWo quotes an anonymous employee as saying. Other employees are reportedly planning a protest outside the office in Gauting.

Lilium filed for insolvency at the end of October 2024 after hopes of a guarantee from the federal government and the state of Bavaria were dashed. Of the more than 1,000 employees at the time, some left voluntarily and around 200 were made redundant in mid-December. And when there was still no sign of a rescue before Christmas, the remaining 750 employees were also made redundant.

However, the company was rescued at Christmas itself: a consortium of investors called Mobile Uplift Corporation signed a purchase agreement and pledged 200 million euros in financing. The initiators are Earlybird and the investment company General Capital, which later brought other investors such as Fifth Wall and 468 Capital as well as the battery supplier Customcells on board. The 750 employees in the last wave of redundancies were offered new jobs.

But it is precisely this transition that is proving difficult. Although the creditors’ committees have already given their approval, implementation is expected to take until the end of the first quarter. Not only the 750 employees are affected by the outstanding payments, but also the 200 employees from the wave of redundancies in mid-December – they have been made redundant, but are still officially employed until the end of March due to the notice period. With a view to the personnel costs of recent years, WiWo calculates that “in January alone, this is likely to be a seven-figure sum” – not including possible severance payments.

As reported by the portal Gründerszene, a quartet of investors transferred five million euros in the form of a convertible loan at the beginning of January – this money would therefore theoretically be available. “However, it remains to be seen whether this sum will soon end up in the right account and be sufficient to bridge the gap,” writes WiWo.

wiwo.de (in German)