Standard & Poor’s has raised its creditworthiness rating for Knorr-Bremse from A-/Outlook positive to A/Outlook stable. ‘This decision only goes to reaffirm our conviction that, alongside technical and operational excellence, it invariably takes a stable financial basis to ensure sustained success in the various markets,’ said Knorr-Bremse CFO Lorenz Zwingmann on July 5
On July 1 a court in Hannover approved an application by Metric Mobility Solutions AG (formerly Hoeft & Wessel) for the initiation of insolvency proceedings, and Dr Rainer Eckert was appointed preliminary insolvency administrator. The company said this would provide legal certainty for business partners and employees ‘in order to enable the company’s operations and its restructuring to be immediately continued.’ On June 28 the company had said a liquidity bottleneck could not be eliminated by advance payment, additional sources of funding or bridge financing, and its objective was ‘for entrepreneurial responsibility to remain in the hands of the board of management in office to date and for business operations to continue.’
In the face of a drop in demand, GE is to close its locomotive turbocharger manufacturing plant in Latham, New York.