Unabiz’s Sigfox business in France has entered judicial reorganisation at the Singapore-based firm’s request, seeking debt relief and breathing space despite recent growth. Unabiz is seeking to preserve jobs, contracts, and long-term innovation.
In sum – what to know:
Reprieve – parent Unabiz secured a six-month protection period for its French network unit last week.
Application – a second bid seeks the same for its French business unit; decision expected tomorrow (9/8).
Cashflow – despite rising connections (15m; +65%) and revenues (€30m; +150%), cash pressures remain.
Sigfox is back in a French court. Three years after it rescued the French IoT outfit from bankruptcy, Singapore-based Unabiz filed late last week (September 4) with the same Toulouse court to request its national Sigfox network operations (Unabiz Network SAS) is placed into a state of ‘judicial reorganisation’ (redressement judiciaire; granted September 5) for six months in order to pause its debt repayments and get its house in order. Which is strange, perhaps, as Sigfox has appeared like a happier operation in recent times.
Its global IoT connections have increased by 66 percent (from nine million to 15 million) and its global IoT sales have jumped by 150 percent (€12 million to €30 million) since Unabiz took charge in 2022 – it claims. Its total debt was €153 million in 2022, when the court-managed receivership process was to find a buyer; its debt is less than €5 million today, mostly inherited from long-term rental fees to French tower firms to stand-up its network operations in its home market. But those fees have been called in, it seems, and left unpaid.
Unabiz had asked to renegotiate with its creditors, and now just wants “some breathing space”, says Philippe Chiu, co-founder and chief executive at the Singapore firm. A second application for ‘judicial reorganisation’ of its French business operations (Unabiz SAS) will be heard by a judge in the commercial court in Toulouse this morning (September 9), as a further appeal for protection over a six month ‘observation period’, and a chance to preserve jobs, technologies, networks, and contracts. The result is expected on Thursday (September 11).
“This time, it is different,” says Chiu. “It is a different business, and a different environment. We are not looking to sell; we want to reorganize in order to continue and to grow, and not as a legal process of recovery.” New contracts and solutions are in the offing, he argues, but “innovation takes time” – which is a perfectly reasonable protest in the IoT market, and an increasingly familiar one as speculative early venture funding has matured, generally unrewarded, and moved on. Unabiz Holdings, the Singapore-based parent, has pumped €36 million into Sigfox since 2022.
More to follow…
