BERLIN -- The historic Bechstein Piano Factory, which applied for bankruptcy protection last month, has been saved from closure by an $18 million Berlin government purchase of company property, Bechstein's chairman said Tuesday.
'Bechstein feels stronger after this cleansing process,' said Karl Schulze, the chairman of C. Bechstein GmbH.
Schulze said the Berlin city government had bought Bechstein's property holding in the central Kreuzberg district for about 30 million German marks ($18 million) and that the company would remain on the site as a tenant.
Schulze said this reduced Bechstein's 40 million mark ($24 million) debt to 10 million marks ($6 billion). He said the remaining debt would be wiped out by reducing warehouse stocks and selling real estate belonging to Bechstein's Bavarian subsidiary Pfofeld.
'The application for bankruptcy has been withdrawn,' Schulze said in a statement.
He said the 140 year-old Bechstein concern and its W. Hoffmann cut- price piano subsidiary were now good shape, with order books full through next April.
