Dutch co sues Landa Labs over €16m debt

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Dutch company Altana BV, owned by German billionaire Susanne Klatten has filed a lawsuit in the Central District Court to open insolvency proceedings against serial entrepreneur Benny Landa tech development company Landa Labs.

This is yet another company owned by Landa mired in a legal battle after printing company Landa Digital Printing and artificial diamond company Lusix, which entered insolvency proceedings and were sold.

Klatten, who inherited billions of euros from her parents' businesses that held shares in Altana, an industrial products and pharmaceutical company, as well as shares in car manufacturer BMW, was one of the flagship investors in Landa's group of companies - the product development company Landa Labs and the digital printing company that emerged from the labs. Landa Digital Printing, which was sold to FIMI, from which the creditors, including Altana and Klatten, received a payment of only NIS 74.5 million, out of debts NIS 1.7 billion.

A loan of €16 million that has not been repaid

The current suit revolves around a loan of €16 million that has not been repaid for more than a year since the deadline passed.

According to Altana's lawyers Advs. Guy Ido, Etai Shani and Karen Reichbach-Segal of the Gornitzky law firm, Landa Labs sent it a proposal to amend the loan agreement and admitted that it was in financial difficulties and unable to repay the loan on time, while requesting an extension and a change in terms, including arranging a $10 million loan from Mizrahi Tefahot Bank. After Landa Labs' request was accepted by the borrower, the bank decided to withdraw from the loan.

Landa Labs, unlike the company sold to FIMI, Landa Digital Printing, is a technology development company that nurtures companies that split off from the group as soon as the product matures. The company employs about half of the employees in the Landa family's group of companies and has so far produced three companies that were sold for an overall $500 million. The best-known of these is Colorite, which developed a scanner for identifying hair color and a tiny printer for printing pigments, and was sold to L'Oreal.

At the same time, Benny Landa, founder of Indigo, also owns Landa Ventures, an investment fund that invests in companies in which he holds shares - such as Highcon, which was sold. after a receivership process, and the public company GenCell.