The supervisory board of Nordseeheilbad Borkum GmbH (NBG) met for its first meeting of the year at the beginning of the month. The agenda included, among other things, the explanation of the causes of the NBG's economic challenges after five years, the review of "Borkum 2030" and its update/update to "Living space Borkum 2030+" as well as the resolution for an addendum to the 2021 economic plan. The first two All city council members who are not represented on the supervisory board were also invited to the agenda items. The current decisions and measures are reported below.

Description of the causes of the NBG's economic challenges

The mayor of the city of Borkum and the managing director of the NBG were commissioned by the city council on July 01, 2020 to create a restructuring concept for the city of Borkum Group. The prerequisite for a successful renovation is a well-founded analysis of the economic challenges of the city of Borkum and the NBG.

The NBG handles numerous different business areas, ranging from tourism to the maintenance of essential parts of Borkum's transport infrastructure, such as the airport and the Nordsee Windport, right up to the municipal utilities segment with the supply of electricity, water and heat to the island. The majority of these business areas can achieve positive annual results. In contrast, however, the two business areas in which NBG is active on direct behalf of the city of Borkum are loss-making. These are, on the one hand, tourism with the operation of public tourism facilities, the organization of tourist events and the realization of tourist marketing for the island and, on the other hand, the operation of the airfield. The annual deficits in these two areas combined now amount to well over half a million euros. The above-mentioned eligible tourism business areas are financed to 95 percent by the guest and tourism contribution. The required contribution of five percent is retained by the city. The development of the last few years has shown that it is becoming increasingly difficult to offset these growing deficits or the own contribution to be generated through positive results from other business areas.

In order to prevent the company from becoming indebted, necessary maintenance measures and investments in the infrastructure were not carried out or only partially carried out. The result is a growing renovation and maintenance backlog in the NBG's facilities and properties, which is evident in many places. These facilities and properties can now only be offered to guests in an outdated, poor quality condition, or they are even missing.

So far, the municipal utilities segment has been almost entirely responsible for compensating for the two loss-making business areas with an annual volume of over half a million euros; Even this is - as the growing renovation and maintenance backlog shows - not sufficient and the company's healthy growth is prevented. In order to secure its own performance in the long term and to be able to implement future topics such as the transformation of Borkum into a climate-neutral island, the municipal utilities segment cannot permanently close the financing gap for tourism and the airport to the same extent as before.

The aim is to create an overall financial resource for the NBG that allows investments and maintenance to be carried out in the infrastructure, which not only includes the basic investments, but also ensures ongoing management. The guest should therefore experience quality in the infrastructure as well as be given a unique holiday experience through high-quality offers or attractive and media-effective major events.

The tasks that the NBG carries out on behalf of the city of Borkum, particularly in the area of ​​tourism, are carried out in the interests of the citizens of Borkum, the operators of tourist businesses in Borkum and the guests. Therefore, the Lower Saxony Municipal Taxes Act provides for their basic financing by these groups of people; The funds for closing an existing financing gap must therefore essentially come from there. In order to make the situation transparent to all Borkum tax and contribution payers, the NBG is expected to publish an explanatory video by the end of April in which the financial basics will be presented.

Review of “Borkum 2030” and update/update to a “Living space Borkum 2030+”

The city council resolution of July 2030, 01 on the development of a restructuring plan for the city of Borkum Group also formed the basis for the presentation of a project outline for the creation of an update and update of “Living Space Borkum 2020+”.

Representatives from politics, the town hall, and NBG (Norddeutsche Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Borkum – Borkum Housing Company) finalized the framework for the restructuring plan in a workshop on October 28, 2020. Given that every organizational restructuring must follow a strategy, there was a consensus that the group's restructuring should begin with an update of the strategic foundations, already outlined in the "Borkum 2030" vision statement and previously deemed necessary by the mayor of Borkum and the managing director of NBG. This will now be achieved through a review of the "Borkum 2030" strategy, originally developed five years ago, and its update/expansion into a "Borkum 2030+ Living Space." Broad public participation from the residents of Borkum is planned, and everyone is warmly invited to contribute.

The costs of litigation support amount to around 90.000 euros. Funding of 70 percent was generated for this through the German-Dutch INTEREGG project SAVE (Samen Voor de Energietransitie - Together for the Energy Transition). The project is about the future-proof sustainable development of the border region and especially Borkum as one of its essential components.

Resolution on adjustment and addendum to the 2021 economic plan

At the last Supervisory Board meeting on December 15, 2020, it was suggested not only to develop the overall concept for the toilets in the current financial year as already provided for in the business plan, but also to begin renovating the toilet at the Hotel Hohenzollern. Here the NBG expects investment costs of 80.000 euros. In addition, the further Corona-related restrictions will be used to completely complete the window renovation in the foyer with a third construction phase this year.

The NBG Supervisory Board approved the changes to the 2021 business plan presented by the management. The NBG is currently assuming a loss of around 2021 million euros for 1,1.

Resolution on liquidation “Nordsee Windport Borkum GmbH & Co. KG”

At the supervisory board meeting on November 3, 2015, a concept for establishing a separate company for the development and operation of the port was discussed. The aim at that time was to operate the port through a so-called public-private partnership, i.e. a company in which both the NBG, as part of the public sector, and a private investor are shareholders. The supervisory board then decided on August 11, 2016 that the shareholders' meeting should, among other things, instruct the management to establish such a company in the form of a limited partnership. However, contrary to what was originally intended, the land is now operated on the basis of a ground lease agreement with Borkum Hafen Immobilien GmbH (BHI), so that the limited partnership is no longer required.

The supervisory board of NBG therefore decided at its last meeting to liquidate all of the limited partners Nordsee Windport Borkum GmbH & Co. KG to take necessary and relevant measures.