HANZA Holding AB (publ) ("HANZA") today signed an agreement to acquire
Wermland
Mechanics Group AB ("Wermech"), one of the Nordic region's leading
manufacturers
of sheet metal mechanics. Wermech will be part of HANZA's
manufacturing cluster
in Sweden, which already covers factories within
electronics manufacturing and
machining. The purchase sum for the shares
amounts to maximum SEK 167.5 million.
"We are pleased to welcome the successful
company Wermech to the HANZA Group.
The acquisition means continued focus on
modernizing and streamlining the
manufacturing industry by our cluster concept,
says Erik Stenfors, CEO of HANZA
In addition to Wermland Mechanics Group AB,
the wholly-owned subsidiary
Wermlands Mechanics Töcksfors AB is included in the
acquisition. In total, the
acquisition has close to 200 employees and sales in
2016 of approx. SEK 300
million with earnings before tax of SEK 16.8 million.
Estimated sales in 2017 is
more than SEK 350 million. The seller of Wermech is
the investment company
Karnell, as well as the present Board of Directors and
management of the
company.
"Wermech has had an impressive development for a
long time, so the choice of new
owners is important. HANZA's long-term
commitment creates good opportunities for
continued success for Wermech, "said
Hans Karlander, chairman of the board
Karnell.
HANZA's manufacturing cluster in
southwest Värmland has so far consisted of two
plants in Årjäng and will now be
expanded using Wermech's plants in Töcksfors
and Svanskog. Here, products for
industries such as industry, defense and
medical technology will be
manufactured.
"We see good conditions for a flourishing manufacturing industry
in southwest
Värmland. Our cluster model increases profitability for our
customers, reduces
lead times and creates more environmentally friendly
processes, says Erik
Stenfors, CEO of HANZA.
The purchase sum amounts to a
total of maximum SEK 167.5 million and consists of
a fixed part of SEK 145
million paid on closing, which is expected to take place
on February 1, 2018,
and a variable part of maximum SEK 22.5 million based on
the results of the
acquired group in 2018. The additional purchase price will be
paid during the
first quarter of 2019.
Wermech is acquired by HANZA's wholly-owned subsidiary
HANZA AB, and the
acquisition is financed partly through credits by the bank
Westra Wermland
Sparbank, partly through a proposed and fully guaranteed SEK 60
million
preferential share issue in HANZA, according to the terms and
conditions
published by a separate press release. The issue requires a
resolution of the
Annual General Meeting in accordance with the Board's
proposal and a notice has
been published in a special press release.
On January
19th, at 12.00 HANZA invites for a press conference and interviews at
Wermech's
factory in Töcksfors, please see the attached press invitatio
(In
Swedish).
Facts: About HANZA
HANZA modernizes and streamlines the
manufacturing industry. We create shorter
lead time with more environmentally
friendly processes and increase
profitability for clients by bringing together
different manufacturing
technologies locally. Founded in 2008, HANZA today has
an annual revenue of more
than one million SEK and operates in Sweden, Finland,
Estonia, Poland, Czech
Republic and China. Among HANZA’s clients are leading
companies like ABB, Perkin
Elmer, Atlas Copco and Kone. For more information
visit www.hanza.com.
Facts: About Wermland Mechanics
Wermland Mechanics is one
of Scandinavia's leading contractors of sheet metal
parts and offers customized
sheet metal details with very high precision. The
company has a highly
automated machinery for processing small, large and
advanced sheet metal
articles, which makes the company very competitive. The
company has production
facilities in Töcksfors and Svanskog and has customers in
several industries.
For more information visit www.wermech.com
Facts: About Karnell
Karnell is an
investment company that invests in small and medium-sized unlisted
Nordic
companies. We are active and long-term owners who, together with the
company’s
management, develop the portfolio companies. Karnell manages two
different
investment platforms, K3 and K4. The investment company K4 owns two
companies
and the buy-out fund K3 owns four companies. Read more at
www.karnell.se
For
more information please contact:
(per.tjernberg@kullsvik.com)Erik Stenfors,
CEO, Phone: 46 709 508070 ,
email:
erik.stenfors@hanza.com
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The
information in this press release is such that HANZA must disclose it
in
accordance with the Securities Markets Act and/or the Financial
Instruments
Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 08.00
am (CET),
January 18, 2018. Erik Penser Bankaktiebolag is the company's
certified adviser.
This press release may contain certain forward-looking
statements that reflect
HANZA’s current views of future events and financial
and operational
performance. Words such as "intends", "anticipates", "expects",
"may", "plan ",
"anticipate" or similar expressions regarding indications or
predictions of
future developments or trends, and are not based on historical
facts, constitute
forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is
inherently
associated with both known and unknown risks and uncertainties
because it is
dependent on future events and circumstances. Forward-looking
statements are not
guarantees regarding future results or developments and
actual results may
differ materially from those set forth in forward-looking
information.