Sigfox: six months to reorganise finances

Sigfox has been placed in receivership by the Toulouse commercial court and has been given six months to put its finances in order.

IoT provider Sigfox was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Labège, France, with offices in Boston, Dallas, Dubai, Madrid, Paris, Sao Paulo, Singapore and Tokyo.

The receivership only directly affects the parent company and not its operators around the world, though their future will obviously be affected by what happens.

The escape route for Sigfox can really only come from either a significant external investment or a takeover.

The Commercial Court of Toulouse opened the receivership and rehabilitation proceedings at the request of Sigfox. The company’s corporate communications executive Antoine Mege stressed that this was not a bankruptcy situation.

“We have requested to be placed under court protection, by applying for the opening of a receivership and rehabilitation procedure,” said Mege. “It is not a liquidation. The receivership and rehabilitation procedure is a solution under French law intended to allow the continuation of the company’s activity and then its revival, the only way to ensure its durability. The final objective of this procedure is to find a buyer able to invest in the growth and development of Sigfox.”

The six-month procedure will allow the Sigfox group to continue all its commercial activities to deliver its clients and meet their needs, under the authority of mandators designated by the court.

Through a combination of low cost and low energy technologies, with a global network owned and operated by 75 operators, Sigfox enables its customers to gain visibility and track their assets around the world. Sigfox covers a population of 1.4 billion people in 75 countries, and processes nearly 80 million messages per day generated by 20 million objects registered to its network.

The observation period will allow a takeover plan able to support Sigfox’s long-term development and maintain jobs.

A statement from the company said the decision to place Sigfox under the protection of the justice through this proceeding was made because of a slower-than-expected adoption cycle for its technology, despite effective shareholder support. In addition, the IoT sector has suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, slowing down activity over the past two years and putting the pressure on the electronic components market, now in shortage. These factors combined have strongly impacted the company’s financial situation, in particular its debt level, which now makes it difficult to speed up the development of Sigfox and its worldwide recognised technology in an increasingly competitive market.

By:  Steve Rogerson

From: https://www.iotm2mcouncil.org/iot-library/news/iot-newsdesk/sigfox-goes-into-receivership/