co-finance

A so-cal­led qua­li­fied sub­or­di­na­ted loan (»Qua­li­fi­zier­te Nach­rang­dar­le­hen«) is a spe­cial form of loan that can be gran­ted to a coope­ra­ti­ve by its mem­bers under cer­tain con­di­ti­ons. Sub­or­di­na­ted means that in the event of pay­ment dif­fi­cul­ties, loans with prio­ri­ty (bank loans) and other lia­bi­li­ties must be hono­u­red first. The term qua­li­fied means that the co-ope­ra­ti­ve may only honour claims (repay­ment and inte­rest), if it does not suf­fer finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties as a result.

Mit dem qua­li­fi­zier­ten Nach­rang­dar­le­hen trägst du im Ver­gleich zu einer uns ggf. Geld lei­hen­den Bank grund­sätz­lich ein höhe­res Risi­ko. Im Fal­le einer schlech­ten Finanz­la­ge der krakelee eG kann das Dar­le­hen nach Ende der Lauf­zeit mög­li­cher­wei­se nicht aus­ge­zahlt wer­den (»qua­li­fi­ziert«). Soll­te die Genos­sen­schaft insol­vent wer­den, hat der Bank­kre­dit bei der Auf­tei­lung der Insol­venz­mas­se Vorrang.

On the other hand, co-ope­ra­ti­ves are regard­ed as a very safe invest­ment opti­on with a high level of resi­li­ence, even in times of cri­sis. The inter­nal struc­tu­re, the embed­ding in regio­nal and social struc­tures, the sup­port from their mem­bers them­sel­ves and, last but not least, the regu­lar eco­no­mic review by the audi­ting asso­cia­ti­on lead to extre­me­ly low insol­ven­cy rates: less than 1% of all Ger­man co-ope­ra­ti­ves go bank­rupt.¹

krakelee eG can only accept loans from pri­va­te indi­vi­du­als if they are mem­bers of the coope­ra­ti­ve. This is a result of the Ger­man Ban­king Act: the accep­tance of finan­cial resour­ces (such as loans) is reser­ved for banks as so-cal­led »depo­sit busi­ness«. The gran­ting of loans of up to €25,000 by mem­bers of a co-ope­ra­ti­ve is an excep­ti­on to this rule.

You deci­de whe­ther the loan should be fixed-term or open-ended. Fixed-term loans end auto­ma­ti­cal­ly after the agreed peri­od. Open-ended loans have a can­cel­la­ti­on peri­od. As we are par­ti­cu­lar­ly reli­ant on plan­ning secu­ri­ty at the begin­ning, all loans have a Mini­mum dura­ti­on of 3 years. As a pro­ject with soli­da­ri­ty as a core prin­ci­ple, we would like to devia­te from this regu­la­ti­on in indi­vi­du­al cases, if neces­sa­ry and if pos­si­ble. So plea­se cont­act us if you have any questions!

The loan can bear inte­rest. We offer an annu­al inte­rest rate of 0% — 1%. You deter­mi­ne the exact amount. The lower the inte­rest rate, the quicker and easier it is for us to repay bor­ro­wed capi­tal for start-up invest­ments and stand on our own two feet. It is also pos­si­ble to tem­po­r­a­ri­ly wai­ve inte­rest pay­ments, for exam­p­le while the pre­mi­ses are being reno­va­ted and we are not yet able to gene­ra­te any ope­ra­ting inco­me. Feel free to cont­act us if you would like to take out a loan but would like dif­fe­rent conditions.

With your sup­port as a len­der, you can make a direct con­tri­bu­ti­on to the rea­li­sa­ti­on of the pro­ject, which would not be pos­si­ble wit­hout the sup­port of (spon­so­ring) mem­bers. We offer you the cer­tain­ty that your money will ser­ve a sus­tainable, demo­cra­tic and socio-cul­tu­ral purpose.

Erfah­re mehr dar­über, war­um es sich lohnt, die krakelee eG zu unterstützen 

? Why beco­me a comrade?

By sub­scrib­ing to shares, you actively con­tri­bu­te to the for­ma­ti­on of capi­tal in line with the coope­ra­ti­ve idea. You beco­me a co-owner of the club to the ext­ent of your shares and your money enables the coope­ra­ti­ve to ope­ra­te sus­tain­ab­ly. With a loan, on the other hand, you lend money to the coope­ra­ti­ve. As alre­a­dy dis­cus­sed, howe­ver, you must also be a sup­port­ing mem­ber in order to recei­ve a loan, i.e. you must buy at least one share.

In prac­ti­ce, the­re is litt­le dif­fe­rence bet­ween shares and loans: Shares have no fixed dura­ti­on but a can­cel­la­ti­on peri­od of 2 years. You do not recei­ve any inte­rest, but you can par­ti­ci­pa­te in pro­fits if the gene­ral mee­ting deci­des to do so. Howe­ver, this is not to be expec­ted in the ear­ly years, as the bor­ro­wed capi­tal taken out to open the com­pa­ny must first be ear­ned and repaid. Loans, on the other hand, can bear inte­rest depen­ding on the agree­ment, have a term and can be repaid (pre­ma­tu­re­ly) by the coope­ra­ti­ve at any time. Both have in com­mon that a pay­out or repay­ment can only be made if this does not cau­se finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties for the coope­ra­ti­ve. In the event of the coope­ra­ti­ve’s bank­rupt­cy, in both cases, the repay­ment of a bank loan and the sett­le­ment of other lia­bi­li­ties take priority.

With co-ope­ra­ti­ve shares you sup­port us the most! If many shares are bought, it will be easier for us to make invest­ments for the foun­da­ti­on. After all, we save on month­ly inte­rest pay­ments. This helps us to stand on our own two feet more quick­ly. Of cour­se, you can also com­bi­ne both models.

We have deli­bera­te­ly deci­ded not to fix the inte­rest rate in advan­ce. We are awa­re that with the cur­rent infla­ti­on rates, an inte­rest rate of up to one per cent does not repre­sent a real pro­fit. Howe­ver, our pro­ject focus­ses pri­ma­ri­ly on idea­li­stic values: we have a local cul­tu­ral and poli­ti­cal impact, crea­te space and actively shape the city. Hel­ping to make this pos­si­ble is the real gain, that we can offer you for your investment.

Terms of a few years pre­sent us as a coope­ra­ti­ve with the chall­enge of repay­ing the loan while we are still in the pro­cess of set­ting up and may have to repay a bank loan. If you are able to bor­row the money for a long peri­od of time, we gain plan­ning security.

Ulti­m­ate­ly, you should also con­sider careful­ly whe­ther and when you might need the money, as the funds are included in our busi­ness plan over the term and can­not neces­s­a­ri­ly be repaid ear­lier at your request.

The gran­ting of a loan and the purcha­se of a share its­elf has no tax impli­ca­ti­ons. Howe­ver, pro­fit dis­tri­bu­ti­ons and inte­rest are sub­ject to regu­lar inco­me tax. Like all other inco­me, you must decla­re them in your tax return, whe­re they can be taxed depen­ding on your per­so­nal circumstances.

As a sup­port­ing mem­ber, you will be regu­lar­ly infor­med about the finan­cial sta­tus of the coope­ra­ti­ve, you will be invi­ted to the annu­al gene­ral mee­ting and you can take part in events that we plan just for our members.

Our employees, our visi­tors, the Colo­gne club sce­ne and the enti­re city bene­fit from your sub­scri­bed shares or a loan. Your sup­port gives tho­se who work for us a job with the oppor­tu­ni­ty for co-deter­mi­na­ti­on. You can find out more about this in our text: 

? Why beco­me a comrade?

The demi­se of clubs is in full swing and »we« as a socie­ty are loo­sing many places of deve­lo­p­ment, of tog­e­ther­ness, of lived uto­pia. The coll­ec­ti­ve finan­cing of this pro­ject offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to break this trend despi­te the cri­sis situa­ti­on and the inac­ti­vi­ty of poli­ti­ci­ans in terms of urban planning.