To Germany from China via Toronto KraussMaffei sold to ChemChina
From left: Ting Cai, chairman and CEO of China National Chemical Equipment Co. Ltd.
(CNCE); Frank Stieler, CEO of KraussMaffei Group, and Chen Junwei, CEO of the ChemChina Finance Co. Ltd.
Toronto-based private equity firm Onex Group has sold KraussMaffei Group, a major global plastics machinery maker headquartered in Munich, Germany, to state-owned China National Chemical Corporation for 925 million euros (US$1 billion). Onex bought KraussMaffei from U.S. investor firm Madison Capital in 2012 in a 568 million-euro deal.
China National Chemical Corporation – called ChemChina for short – supplies agrochemicals, rubber products, chemical materials and specialty chemicals, industrial equipment, and petrochemical processing. Within its agrochemicals business is a large portfolio of companies including Hubei Sanonda, Cangzhou Dahua, Shandong Dacheng, Jiangsu Anpon, Anhui Petrochemicals, and Huaihe Chemicals.
Founded in 2004, Beijing-based ChemChina is said to be China’s largest chemicals group, having generated revenues of around 37 billion euros in 2015 with approximately 140,000 employees, of whom 45,000 are located outside China. The company’s most recent acquisition was the high-end tire manufacturer Pirelli in 2015.
“With ChemChina, we have found a strategic and long-term oriented investor who has been interested in our Company for many years,” Frank Stieler, CEO of the KraussMaffei Group, said in a statement.
The statement also said that KraussMaffei will continue to operate in its current corporate structure, that KraussMaffei’s headquarters will remain in Munich, and that the operating and corporate responsibility for the company will stay in Europe.
“We are strengthening our company with one of the leading global engineering groups, encompassing a 178-year corporate history. In doing so, we expect that KraussMaffei Group will maintain its identity and independence,” said Jianxin Ren, chairman of ChemChina. “We are investing in the company’s strong management team and its technological expertise, which we believe will benefit our Chinese subsidiaries and position the chemical machinery business of ChemChina. The growth potential of the KraussMaffei Group is tremendous, especially through improved access to the Chinese market, which we can make possible. We expect trends in the automotive industry towards advanced manufacturing and lightweight components will provide a huge development opportunity for the high-end plastic injection molding industry.”
In 2014, KraussMaffei – which employs approximately 4,500 employees globally – generated revenues of approximately 1.1 billion euros, and is expected to achieve year-on-year revenue growth of approximately 10 per cent for 2015.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2016.
News wired by: Shahyan Moin (PIMI Correspondent in Canada)
About ChinaChem:
China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) is a state-owned enterprise established by reorganizing the subsidiary companies under the former Ministry of the Chemical Industry, People’s Republic of China. It is the largest enterprise in China’s chemical industry, ranking 265th among the Fortune 500 companies. In 2013 it registered total assets of RMB272.5 billion and sales revenue of RMB244 billion.
ChemChina, laying strategic importance on “traditional chemicals, advanced materials”, sees its main business made up of six sectors: advanced chemical materials and specialty chemicals, basic chemicals, oil processing, agrochemicals, tire & rubber products and chemical equipment.
About KraussMaffei:
The KraussMaffei Group is among the world’s leading suppliers of machinery and systems for producing and processing plastics and rubber. We develop and manufacture our products in more than 10 production plants and market them under the established product brands KraussMaffei, KraussMaffei Berstorff and Netstal through a worldwide, tightly-woven sales and service network with more than 140 companies and agencies.
Our international customers come from a very wide range of industrial sectors, including the automotive, building, consumer goods, electrical, electronics, chemicals, medical and pharmaceutical industries and white goods. Our customers know and appreciate our high-quality products and services and our trendsetting system and process solutions and recognize that today our focus already follows the latest innovation in lightweight construction, premium quality surfaces, material savings, reduction of power consumption or the use of natural fiber reinforced plastics.
Our experience, know-how and passion for machine construction goes back to the year 1838. This long tradition obliges us to constantly offer our customers added value in the form of an excellent product and service portfolio – and to strengthen our leading market position in the long term.
