ATM maker Diebold Nixdorf files for bankruptcy to cut $2 billion in debt

By Dietrich Knauth

NEW YORK (Reuters) - ATM maker Diebold Nixdorf filed for bankruptcy in Texas on Thursday, saying it had reached an agreement to reduce the company's overall debt by $2.1 billion.

The Ohio-based company entered bankruptcy with over $2.7 billion in debt, and its lenders have agreed to provide $517 million in new loans to fund the company's bankruptcy, according to court documents filed in Houston bankruptcy court.

The new money is part of a broader debt reduction agreement that should enable the company to emerge from bankruptcy in the third quarter of 2023, the company said in a statement.

Diebold Nixdorf said it urgently needs the new loans. It has just $140 million in cash on hand, and it needs to pay $668 million to lenders and trade vendors in the next six weeks, according to its court filings.

Diebold has struggled with debt since it acquired Germany-based Wincor Nixdorf AG for $1.8 billion in 2016. After taking on significant debt in that deal, the newly-combined company faced flat or declining sales in its core business of selling ATMs to banks and checkout machines to retail customers.

Before filing for bankruptcy, Diebold engaged in cost-cutting efforts like reducing its real estate footprint, streamlining its ATM product range, and renegotiating its debt in March 2022.

Diebold Nixdorf sells ATMs and point-of-sale systems in more than 100 countries. Shortly before its bankruptcy filing, its share traded at $1.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Nick Zieminski)