Skischaukel Gaißau: Regional rescuers at work?
The five municipalities of Krispl-Gaißau, Adnet (both Tennengau), Hintersee, Faistenau and Fuschl (all Flachgau) want to do their part to save the lift operations at the Gaißau-Hintersee ski area. This was confirmed to the ORF on Thursday morning. At the same time, a group of entrepreneurs who want to get involved is also forming, as a spokesman for ORF said. But nobody wanted to give an interview. The state of Salzburg also stands by its commitment of two million euros in support for the rescue of the ski area, according to the office of Governor Wilfried Haslauer (ÖVP).
Rescuers need contacts
All of the actual stress that these rescue efforts require a specific contact person on the part of the Gaißau-Hintersee mountain railways, as well as facts and figures about how the company is currently doing. It’s about the question of how it looks with debts, leases and technical equipment.
The emergency manager is the Salzburg lawyer Stephan Gappmaier. He will now file for bankruptcy for the mountain railway company. When the bankruptcy proceedings WILL BE opened, the court will then appoint a liquidator. He then decides how to proceed with the business. Municipalities, the state of Salzburg and regional entrepreneurs say that we will have to wait until then. It is also still unclear whether and in what form winter operations in the ski area will be possible this year.
The demolition procedure for the lifts, which the former managing director Bernhard Eibl had applied for in the spring, is currently on hold. Here, too, the authority is waiting for a new contact person from the mountain railways, according to the state of Salzburg.
Filing for bankruptcy on Thursday afternoon?
The third bankruptcy application after five years is expected to be filed at the Salzburg regional court on Thursday. It should be an opportunity to find a solution in the confused situation around the ski area, says the emergency manager.
After January 2017 and October 2019, the insolvency of the Gaißau-Hintersee ski area has now been filed for the third time in five and a half years. This was confirmed to the ORF by the emergency manager of Gaissau Hintersee Bergbahnen GmbH, the lawyer Stephan Gappmaier, who has been in office since Wednesday.
No more employees
The assets of the cable car company include the described building of the lift valley stations and the lifts themselves, says the emergency manager. It remains to be seen how high the registered claims of the creditors are. In any case, the company currently has no employees.
Gappmaier took over the business at the request of a creditor because there was no reaction to claims and invoices. Entrepreneur Bernhard Eibl retired from the mountain railways a long time ago.
Most recently, around half of the claims have been paid
According to the Credit Protection Association of 1870, around 40 creditors registered a total of 550,000 euros in claims during the last Gaißau-Hintersee insolvency in 2019. When the procedure was completed in October of the previous year, they received slightly more than half of it back.