Teldafax

Teldafax (also styled TelDaFax) was a German holding company headquartered in Troisdorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, whose subsidiaries operated in energy supply (as an electricity discounter), telecommunications, tourism and financial services. The name is an acronym of Telefon, Daten, Fax (telephone, data, fax). Before the liberalisation of the German telecommunications market, Teldafax offered customers price savings by enrolling their Bundespost or Deutsche Telekom lines in a framework agreement. After liberalisation in 1998, it became a call-by-call and preselection provider reachable via the network prefix 01030, and for a long period it was also by far the cheapest provider of 0800 service numbers. After falling into financial difficulty, Teldafax left call-by-call wholesale invoices to Deutsche Telekom unpaid for an extended period. Deutsche Telekom offset the arrears against amounts it collected from Teldafax end customers via telephone bills; when this was blocked by a court, Deutsche Telekom barred access to the 01030 prefix. Teldafax obtained a temporary injunction restoring the connection, but a few days later the prefix was permanently switched off. The resulting customer exodus was the end for the original company: Teldafax filed for insolvency at the Marburg local court on 2 April 2001 on grounds of impending inability to pay, and insolvency proceedings opened on 1 June 2001. In the course of those proceedings the company was sold to a Swiss investor group. In 2002 oneVoice Communication was founded, taking over the end-customer business of CONOS AG and TelDaFax Newline GmbH in Marburg. The resulting TelDaFax GmbH thus acquired the brand name of the former Teldafax AG without becoming its legal successor. The Teldafax Holding AG group later included Teldafax Energy GmbH, Teldafax Telecom GmbH, Teldafax Services GmbH, Teldafax Finance GmbH, e-punkt GmbH and Teldafax Dialog GmbH. By its own account the Teldafax group had around 100 employees in September 2007, around 180 by December and around 220 by May 2008; in October 2008 it took over a call centre in Berlin-Schönefeld that had been threatened with closure, and by November 2009 it had roughly 430 employees. On 11 March 2011 the company announced a majority takeover by two investors, CPA Invest AG and Sigma Citation Capital Strategies Limited; CPA Invest AG belonged to the factoring network of Swiss Factoring AG, through which the fund provider Debi Select group had invested in Teldafax Holding AG via factoring. On 14 June 2011 Teldafax applied to the Bonn local court to open insolvency proceedings for Teldafax Holding AG, Teldafax Energy GmbH and Teldafax Services GmbH. Three days later the company announced that from 18 June 2011 all customers would temporarily no longer be supplied with electricity and gas by Teldafax, with the local basic supplier stepping in instead. In the area of the utility and network operator Vattenfall this had already happened from 18 May 2011, after Vattenfall cancelled its supply contract with Teldafax and refused further supply, triggering substitute supply under the German electricity basic supply ordinance. On 16 June 2011 Teldafax applied for insolvency proceedings for Teldafax Dialog GmbH, Teldafax Finance GmbH and Teldafax Sales GmbH. On 1 September 2011 insolvency proceedings were opened against the TelDaFax group on grounds of inability to pay and over-indebtedness, with the Düsseldorf lawyer Biner Bähr appointed insolvency administrator. Creditor claims could be filed with the administrator until 31 January 2012 under section 174 of the German Insolvency Code. By 8 November 2011 more than 700,000 creditors had been summoned to a first meeting in Cologne, most of them customers who had made advance payments. The Teldafax collapse attracted great public attention.

Teldafax (also styled TelDaFax) was a German holding company headquartered in Troisdorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, whose subsidiaries operated in energy supply (as an electricity discounter), telecommunications, tourism and financial services. The name is an acronym of Telefon, Daten, Fax (telephone, data, fax). Before the liberalisation of the German telecommunications market, Teldafax offered customers price savings by enrolling their Bundespost or later Deutsche Telekom lines in a framework agreement that enabled price reductions. With the liberalisation of the telecommunications market in 1998, call-by-call and preselection services became possible via Teldafax through the network prefix 01030. For a long period Teldafax was also by far the cheapest provider of 0800 service numbers. After Teldafax fell into financial difficulties some years later, its invoices for call-by-call wholesale services to Deutsche Telekom remained unpaid for an extended period. Deutsche Telekom later offset the outstanding invoices against the amounts it collected from Teldafax end customers via telephone bills. After this was blocked by a court, Deutsche Telekom barred access to the 01030 prefix. After Teldafax initially obtained reinstatement through a temporary injunction, the network prefix 01030 was permanently switched off a few days later. The resulting customer exodus was the end for Teldafax: on 2 April 2001 Teldafax filed for insolvency at the Marburg local court on grounds of impending inability to pay. Insolvency proceedings opened on 1 June 2001. In the course of the insolvency proceedings the company was sold to a Swiss investor group. In 2002 oneVoice Communication was founded, taking over the end-customer business of CONOS AG and TelDaFax Newline GmbH in Marburg. The resulting TelDaFax GmbH thus acquired the brand name of the former Teldafax AG without becoming its legal successor. The Teldafax Holding AG group later included Teldafax Energy GmbH, Teldafax Telecom GmbH, Teldafax Services GmbH, Teldafax Finance GmbH, e-punkt GmbH and Teldafax Dialog GmbH. By its own account the Teldafax group had around 100 employees in September 2007, around 180 by December and around 220 by May 2008. In October 2008 Teldafax took over a call centre in Berlin-Schönefeld that had been threatened with closure. By November 2009 the company had roughly 430 employees. On 11 March 2011 the company announced a majority takeover by two investors, CPA Invest AG and Sigma Citation Capital Strategies Limited. CPA Invest AG belonged to the factoring network of Swiss Factoring AG, through which the fund provider Debi Select group had invested in Teldafax Holding AG via factoring. On 14 June 2011 Teldafax applied to the Bonn local court to open insolvency proceedings for Teldafax Holding AG, Teldafax Energy GmbH and Teldafax Services GmbH. Three days later the company announced that from 18 June 2011 all customers would temporarily no longer be supplied with electricity and gas by Teldafax, with the local basic supplier stepping in instead. In the area of the utility and network operator Vattenfall this had already happened from 18 May 2011, after Vattenfall cancelled its supply contract with Teldafax and refused further supply, triggering substitute supply under the German electricity basic supply ordinance (StromGVV). On 16 June 2011 Teldafax applied for insolvency proceedings for Teldafax Dialog GmbH, Teldafax Finance GmbH and Teldafax Sales GmbH. On 1 September 2011 insolvency proceedings were opened against the TelDaFax group on grounds of inability to pay and over-indebtedness. The Düsseldorf lawyer Biner Bähr was appointed insolvency administrator. Creditor claims could be filed with the administrator until 31 January 2012 under section 174 of the German Insolvency Code. By 8 November 2011 more than 700,000 creditors had been summoned to a first meeting in Cologne, most of them customers who had made advance payments. The Teldafax collapse attracted great public attention. It is of particular significance in German economic history because, measured by the roughly 750,000 creditors, it was the largest insolvency until then and the second-largest after that of Flexstrom (835,000 creditors). Unlike the Flexstrom insolvency, the Teldafax proceedings offered scarcely any prospect of creditor compensation from the outset. The administrator reported insufficiency of assets to the insolvency court in "almost all proceedings" and in 2011 expected the proceedings to last until at least 2020 and any dividend payment no earlier than 2021; in 2021 a dividend was not expected before 2025. The official website now serves as a notice page from the insolvency administration for Teldafax customers and creditors, stating that realisation of the Teldafax assets continues and that more than 500,000 claims have been filed to the insolvency tables across all Teldafax proceedings. In early 2013 the Bonn public prosecutor filed charges against former Teldafax managers Klaus Bath, Michael Josten and Gernot Koch, alleging delay of insolvency proceedings, commercial fraud and acts of bankruptcy.

• With the liberalisation of the German telecommunications market, Teldafax offered call-by-call and preselection services via the network prefix 01030.

• Teldafax filed for insolvency at the Marburg local court on grounds of impending inability to pay.

• Insolvency proceedings opened; the company was sold to a Swiss investor group.

• oneVoice Communication was founded, taking over the end-customer business of CONOS AG and TelDaFax Newline GmbH; the resulting TelDaFax GmbH acquired the brand name without becoming legal successor.

• The Teldafax group had around 100 employees by its own account.

• Employee count reached around 180.

• Employee count reached around 220.

• Teldafax took over a call centre in Berlin-Schönefeld threatened with closure.

• The company had roughly 430 employees.

• Teldafax announced a majority takeover by CPA Invest AG and Sigma Citation Capital Strategies Limited.

• Vattenfall cancelled its supply contract with Teldafax and refused further supply, triggering substitute supply.

• Teldafax applied to the Bonn local court to open insolvency proceedings for Teldafax Holding AG, Teldafax Energy GmbH and Teldafax Services GmbH.

• Teldafax announced that from 18 June 2011 all customers would temporarily no longer be supplied with electricity and gas.

• Teldafax applied for insolvency proceedings for Teldafax Dialog GmbH, Teldafax Finance GmbH and Teldafax Sales GmbH.

• Insolvency proceedings opened against the TelDaFax group; Biner Bähr appointed insolvency administrator.

• More than 700,000 creditors summoned to a first meeting in Cologne.

• Deadline for creditors to file claims with the insolvency administrator under section 174 InsO.

• Bonn public prosecutor filed charges against former managers Klaus Bath, Michael Josten and Gernot Koch.

Discount provider of electricity, gas and telecommunications services in Germany.

• Discounted electricity

• Discounted gas

• Call-by-call and preselection telephony via prefix 01030

• 0800 service numbers

• Travel services

• Financial services

1. 1TelDaFax | Mitteilung der Insolvenzverwaltungteldafax.de
2. 2Teldafax – Wikipediade.wikipedia.org
3. 3Teldafax – Wikidatawikidata.org