FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Grundig AG, which rode Germany's post-World War II economic boom to become one of the best-known names in home electronics, started bankruptcy proceedings Monday after years of losses and the failure of rescue talks with foreign investors.
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The head of the company, which has struggled for years against competition from Asian producers, said that only new investment could save it from being broken up and sold in pieces to pay off creditors.
"Without an investor, we do not see the company as capable of being restructured," chief executive Eberhard Braun said at a news conference in the company's home town of Nuremberg.
The bankruptcy process could rid Grundig of debts and pension obligations that turned off potential rescuers and provide "opportunities that go far beyond what we could offer investors before," Braun added.
The company filed for court protection from creditors after talks with Taiwanese electronics firm Sampo and Turkish television maker Beko failed in recent weeks. Following the move, Braun said Grundig was again in contact with Sampo and Beko.
Grundig grew rapidly in the years after World War II, selling radios and televisions in Germany's expanding consumer economy in the 1950s and 1960s.
Radio dealer Max Grundig at first sold repair equipment for radios while production was halted immediately after the war's end. He then produced his own consumer radios, including one of the first portables, the 1949 Grundig Boy.
Grundig was the largest radio maker in Europe by the time the arrival of television in Germany in 1952 opened another new market. It branched out into hi-fi equipment and short-wave radios for hobbyists.
Competition from Asian manufacturers and unsuccessful ventures into sidelines such as phone equipment led to shrinking sales. Dutch electronics maker Philips took the firm over in the 1980s but pulled out in 1996. Losses reached 150 million euros in 2001 on sales of 1.28 billion euros.
A Nuremberg court appointed lawyer Siegfried Beck as bankruptcy administrator to oversee the company's finances and help determine whether it can be restructured or must be broken up.
Beck is to report May 19 on the company's condition. In the meantime, the company has secured additional bank credits to continue operations at least until July, Braun said.
CEO Braun, a restructuring expert hired earlier this month as the company headed for bankruptcy, served as bankruptcy administrator for aircraft maker Fairchild Dornier -- which was sold in pieces earlier this year after no buyer could be found for the entire firm.
Braun said the bankruptcy covered only Grundig's administration, research and marketing divisions -- and excluded profitable divisions such as its car radio manufacturing operation and satellite equipment business.
Last year, the company's majority owner and chairman, Anton Kathrein, argued that the Grundig brand name alone was worth 500 million euros (US$535 million).
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