Word: schlieker
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Hamburg's influential daily. Die Welt, had called him "the favorite child of West Germany's economic miracle." Fortnight ago, shortly after he had startled West Germany by admitting that he could not meet July's bills (TIME. Aug. 3), Industrialist Willy Schlieker, 48, was declared bankrupt by a Hamburg court. Up for liquidation was Schlieker's entire domain of 23 shipbuilding, steelmaking and trading companies that grossed $200 million last year...
...West German stock market slumped last week to a three-year low, down 13% since Blue Monday alone, as investors were preoccupied by tarnish on the German miracle-inflation, slackening production and softening profits. Contributing to the German unease is the financial fry of Millionaire Shipbuilder Willy Schlieker (TIME, Aug. 3), whose unexpected tumble set off nervous speculation that more than a few other German postwar "wonder boys" might also be overextended and undercapitalized. Last week a Schlieker spokesman said glumly, "Bankruptcy proceedings have just been opened," involving all 23 Schlieker companies...
Five Days, Five Deaths. This worked well enough so long as the post-Suez crisis shipbuilding boom held up and eager purchasers were willing to make advance payment on ships, thereby assuring Schlieker a steady cash inflow. But lately, with a decline in demand, he has been obliged to agree to payment only after delivery. Result was that the cash collected by his shipyard dropped $14.5 million this year...
...court appeal, Schlieker's firm pointed to a $50 million backlog of shipbuilding orders and offered to pay 50% of its debts within two years. If the court and creditors agreed to receivership on these terms, the company would continue to operate under a state-appointed administrator. There was also some hope that Schlieker KG could avoid receivership entirely by working out a rescue operation through the banks. During the week, the Dresdner Bank arranged to beef up Schlieker's capital base by $1,000,000, and Munich Private Banker Rudolf Münemann, another of Germany...
Shakes in the Street. In the end, since many of his companies are not directly affected, Schlieker may well salvage enough to rebuild his empire. But his tumble had so shaken the German public, to whom Willy Schlieker was the prototype of the self-made tycoon, that the West German Economics Ministry felt obliged to rush out a statement that Schlieker's problems were of his own making and "cannot be traced to a depression-type development in the German economy...