VIPsight - March 2015
COMPANIES
Suspected monopoly in RWE power station construction
In November 2014, findings began to come to light that implicated Imtech in a series of shady dealings between 2008 and 2010 that allegedly caused substantial damage to the group. On February 3, Munich magistrates accompanied by federal police officers moved into four of the Dutch scaffolding manufacturer’s premises in Germany and into those of another nine companies in the same field. Investigations are focusing on more than ten individuals being accused of rigging contracts that limited competition in the construction industry. Apparently, there were bidding irregularities in the construction logistics of the power stations in Eemshaven and Hamm. Instead of competing on lowest price to win the bid for the technical equipment of the job the partners allegedly involved (Cofely, Caverion and Air Technology/Ferrostaal) then agreed to pass their inflated orders to Imtech in exchange for a slice of the cake generated by bogus orders. As of now, a number of individuals have confessed to raising false invoices. The German Monopolies Commission is also under investigation, seemingly accused by RWE itself after news reports in November 2014 raised doubts about price rigging, and then inspection revealed discrepancies between material invoiced and actually registered on site. It had never occurred to RWE that any irregularities were taking place.
CTS Eventim: Under the microscope
The German Monopolies Commission has launched an investigation into the affairs of SDax-listed ticket manufacturer CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGAA suspected of abusing its dominant market status. Financial journal Manager Magazin was informed by a commission spokesperson that this procedure is presently administrative and its aim is to ascertain whether there exists admissibility of antitrust business practices on the part of Eventi. Enquiries began last November and are focusing on specific information that came to light during the audit of a transaction that CTS had participated in.
The impact on CTS’s share price was not good. After the news was made public, the price slumped by more than 15%. In its meeting with the media, CTS was steadfast in assuring that it had obeyed the law and had not resorted to illicit practices. Eventim states that it is cooperating fully with the authorities and has answered all the questions within the prescribed time frame.
Takkt: Office furniture numbers rising
SDax listed office furniture and shopfittings trader, Takkt, AG, has posted surprisingly good results for 2014. Turnover is up by almost 3% to some 980 million Euros and Ebit has increased by more than 15% to approximately 111 million Euros. According to the board of management, sales in the USA were better than expected. Sales to North America are off to a good start in the current financial year also and are expected to grow even more. Sales in Europe are expected to rally strongly with a rise in orders placed by corporate clients. Takkt management are forecasting an increase in revenue for 2015.
Petrotec: Looming losses
Producer of organic energy substances Petrotec AG close to being taken over by a US concern, has announced losses for 2014 in both turnover and revenue. The blame is being attributed to unfavourable market conditions, in particular a drop in prices on buyers’ markets. Provisional figures for last financial year indicate a probable shortfall of some 3.8 million Euros. The need for the Prime Standard-listed company to review its 2014 forecast downwards for a negative Ebit was clear in August. Its turnover of 167 million Euros meant that the company achieved its initial target (between 150 and 220 million Euros) but Ebit fell from 5 million Euros of the previous year to 2.2 million.
The German Mittelstand
German SMEs: no need to unify Capital Markets
Poor old Europe. Some 80 percent of investments in European SMEs are still funded by banks while entrepreneurs seek a mere fifth of overall SME capital requirements on capital markets. In the United States the situation is the exact opposite, with 80 percent of companies resorting to capital markets for the funding they need. EU Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, intends to turn this situation round. Hopefully, European companies will be attracted enough by the easier terms of the unified framework of conditions to place shares, bonds or other financial instruments on the capital market. In Brussels, the project has been known for some time as “The Union of capital markets”.
Making funding easier for companies to access is certainly a good thing. Setting conditions in an overall unified framework to be implemented over the whole European Union, though, is causing certain German stock market speculators sleepless nights. As things stand now, they are complaining about the capital market being over-regulated by the flood of rules and directives that Brussels regularly sends out which makes easy things difficult for companies with shares or bonds listed on the stock market. The DAI (Deutsche Aktieninstitut) has made its position regarding the proposed unification of the capital markets clear, expressly requesting that the needs of the companies be taken duly into account.
There is a certain misgiving, not altogether unjustified, that even the markets that already function very efficiently will soon find themselves snowed under with the new EUDs and EU Commissioner Jonathan Hill says nothing to allay this fear. He recently pointed out that Europe must meet the challenge of injecting dynamism into investments as a way to foster growth and combat unemployment, objectives that can only be pursued by having a true domestic capital market in all 28 Member States, acting as broker between savers and investors on the one hand and small/small-medium sized companies on the other. All this smacks a bit like kin liability, because Hill concludes by saying that easier conditions for company funding would be a good thing. However, according to the President of the Savings Bank Association, Georg Fahrenschon, there is no call for third-party funding to be made easier for companies to access, either in the majority of European countries or, even less so, in Germany.
German SMEs enjoy excellent health outside Germany, too. Their reputation is excellent – even despite the occasional SME bond not living up to expectations. Whoever has a duly approved business model in Germany does not have to go through too many hoops to obtain third-party capital on the stock market. This is why German market-listed SMEs must not bear the brunt of new rules and regulations. Let European politicians remember that ‘thinking the right thing’ isn’t always the same as ”doing the right thing”. The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions.
Buhlmann's Corner
The nature of things – learning how to run always wearing new shoes
Companies begin to develop negative market worth and absorb it into the fabric of their market capital when instead of attacking markets or competitors the actions they pursue cause harm to their own shareholders.
With few small variations the basic pattern is always the same.
The Supervisory Board has little authority over the management board and is weak and irresolute towards it, providing no supervision or strategy in power and counter-power a vacuum.
The management board gets hijacked by one, or sometimes two or three of its members who, characteristically, are unable to shake off the dust of their feet or, worse still, can’t even feel it’s there.
The absence of commitments that a healthy Supervisory Board ought to perform grants the CEO room to appoint people to the management board in de facto cooption. Naturally any candidate with savvy would never be considered in the first place. Competitors, instead, entice the middle management into their trap, getting them increasingly embroiled as market share falls and the profitability of the whole company fades away, in the end even before the eyes of the impassable directors.
The death rattle is expressed in visionary programmes supposed to revive fortune and profit when the contracts have expired, even though the results were promised for today, or even yesterday.
In addition to the absence of leadership and the loss of touch with reality, there is a certain kind of seniority common amongst the model/directors. The “visibility” factor grows bigger by the day and it affects the halo hovering just above their heads as well as the appearance in the distant future of the income that just today has been swallowed up by a black hole. “The sooner Mr Hainer passes the baton to a successor, the better”, comments Ingo Speich, Union Investment in Frankfurt.
Yes, I do know of one exception. Of himself, he says “as a rule, candidates tend to seek election to a Supervisory Board before they’re 70 and I’m the exception that proves that rule” (Ferdinand Piech). Despite his unsurpassed arrogance Piech has succeeded in creating major success stories from the dust of reality. With undisputable authority he achieved results with Porsche, Audi and Volkswagen as unprecedented as they were unimaginable.
Adidas lacks a grandeur of this calibre (see also Financial Times, Reuters, Format online, Manager Magazin and Die Welt); Its CEO has been in office for more than ten years, drafting five year plans that promise unparalleled results in turnover and profitability; when the Supervisory Board girds up its loins, it is always for its own ends, the market is moving but it’s far ahead of Adidas. Speculators invest hoping for a profit that could materialize from the early resignation of the company leadership The company leadership, in the meantime take the shareholders’ money to defend and protect themselves, with much noise and to do, and with the help of consultants (what on earth can be the purpose of all these people be?) against the shareholders themselves.
Who can protect the capital from precisely this kind of protection if not an efficient and functioning Supervisory Board. Right?
If only the shareholders had voted for it in time. Things would have been much better and two or three of them would have already retired.
Who’s coming after Adidas?
ACTIONS CORNER
The legal dispute between Bilfinger and Tubin is becoming ever more heated. Tubin, Bilfinger’s former business partner, has obtained attachment orders against Bilfinger’s subsidiary companies in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. None of the three has sufficient funds any more to pay. Furthermore, 60 million Euros of unpaid debts dating back to a construction initiative in Qatar loom on the horizon. In November 2011, an arbitration tribunal ruled convincingly in favour of the Turkish construction company. So far, Bilfinger has not pursued the matter further but it has announced its intention of launching a legal appeal against the issuance of the attachment orders notified.
In the now ten-year-old legal wrangle launched by the relatives of a terrorist attack for compensation from Iran, a New York court rejected a claim because the assets held on Clearwater accounts – shares worth 1.75 thousand million dollars according to United States legal documents – failed to be handed over. In Autumn 2013, the receiver from Deutsche Börse had given assurances that 1.8 thousand million dollars of the central bank of Iran (Bank Markazi) presently on a Clearstream deposit account with Citigroup in USA would be freed up. Now, the plaintiffs have unearthed money held in Luxemburg too, that they are laying claim to.
Politics
More powers to financial services control
The Federal coalition’s project for enhancing the protection of small investors on the grey capital market came under fire during the meeting of the Federal council on February 6. The Länder chamber announced that the measures proposed would limit the powers granted to the financial services governing body (BaFin) instead of broadening them and insists that the wording as it is represents a step backwards compared to today’s version and must absolutely be amended. Furthermore, the Länder point out that the guarantee conditions published on the brochure are less advanced than those presently in force and thus inadequate to meet demands. The Federal council would also like to broaden BaFin’s scope in terms of sanctions for breaching the rules that safeguard consumers and discussing making it mandatory for service company administrators to issue a personal guarantee for particularly heinous breaches. The programme to protect small shareholders was launched approximately two months ago by the German government to safeguard consumers from the risks of cash ventures on sale through the grey capital market.
Economy pushing hard for last resort regulation
In the course of the Bundestag public session of February 23, the amendment lobbied for by German economic circles granting an out on legislation on gender equality as it affects Supervisory Boards of German companies, set off echoes that resonated long and loud. Expert opinion has it that the Bill that the government tabled in parliament with its objective of pursuing gender-equality requirements by legislation at company executive level is in need of some fine tuning. Apparently there are certain passages in the Bill that are anti-constitutional and in partial conflict with European legislation. According to the Bundestag the drive by the government and the Greens to increase the number of women in top jobs was very welcome. In the opinion of Friederike Maier, professor at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht in Berlin, a recognised exception or so-called hardship clause that comes into play whenever no suitable woman is available to fill a vacancy is useless. The Association of the German legal profession, instead, maintains that such a clause with the admissibility of exceptions, is absolutely indispensible and the only way of keeping gender equality legislation in line with that of constitutional and European law.
People
54-year-old Per H. Utnegaard from Norway, presently head of Swissport the airport service provider at Zurich has been selected to succeed Herbert Bodner, caretaker CEO of Bilfinger. Bodner took the helm of the construction company when the former Prime Minister of Hessen resigned his seat on the board of management. The Supervisory Board had appointed Bodner as interim CEO until May 31. The new CEO will be regularly appointed when the candidate has agreed on the date of severance with his present employer. As had been envisaged, the new CFO effective April 1 will be Axel Salzmann, who held a similar post in ProSieben-Sat.1. Salzmann will take the place of Joachim Müller who after repeatedly giving fallacious profit forecasts announced his decision last year to resign.
Deutsche Telekom has invited Ines Kolmsee to join its Supervisory Board, thus raising its gender privilege quota in favour of women to 40 percent. On February 6, the group announced that Kolmsee would succeed the late Bernhard Walter on the Supervisory Board. Kolmsee was chair of the management board of SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding from 2006 and 2014, when she was also a member of the Supervisory Board of FUCHS PETROLUB, Umicore and Suez Environnement. This appointment brings the Supervisory Board to numerical completion. According to a company communiqué of February 25, Christian P. Illek will be head of human resources on the Deutsche Telekom management board. This comes as a surprise; after Marion Schick’s resignation for health reasons, Chief Legal Advisor Thomas Kremer was appointed caretaker head, a position he has held for just on one year.
Freenet has invited Sabine Christiansen to join its Supervisory Board. Her experience as journalist and entrepreneur, and her award-winning social awareness and commitment make her a “new member of great worth” as CEO Christoph Vilanek stated on February in Büdelsdorf, in Schleswig Holstein. The former talk show presenter’s appointment is effective immediately in succession to Achim Weiss who resigned his seat for personal reason.
Michael Schneider is scheduled to succeed Othmar Belker as CFO of the NORMA Group by the end of September. Belker’s resignation, agreed on with the company – the Supervisory Board did not renew his contract – concludes eight years of service. Werner Deggim will act as caretaker CFO. The company communiqué of January 30 announcing Belker’s resignation makes no mention of regret.
Heinz-Joachim Neubürger has taken his own life in Munich. He was 62 years old. In Siemens the reaction was one of deep shock. No information has been divulged regarding exactly what happened. In the Siemens vs. Neubürger corruption trial, the Munich Tribunal ruled against Neubürger sentencing him to pay 15 million Euros in damages. The executive had appealed and in December 2014, the parties agreed to settle against a payment of 2.5 million Euros, not least since it was the most that Neubürger would have been unable to pay. The shareholders’ meeting on January 27 voted its approval of this out-of-court settlement. Neubürger had always rejected the allegation of dereliction of duty.
On January 28, the Kassel tribunal appointed Roland Bent to the Supervisory Board of SMA Solar Technology. A member of the board of management of Phoenix Contact, Bent has taken the place of SMA co-founder Günther Cramer who passed away on January 6 last. In Phoenix Contact, Bent, an electro-technical engineer, is responsible for product marketing and development and management of innovation and technology. During the meeting on February 11, Erik Ehrentraut was elected to the chair of the Supervisory Board of SMA Solar Technology. The former chairman of the Supervisory Board had taken a step back to the vice-chair in 2011 which now, is occupied by Kim Fausing on behalf of major shareholder Danfoss.
The appointment of Matthias Müller to the management board of VOLKSWAGEN was on the agenda of the company’s Supervisory Board for February 27. The executive was summoned to take change of a new company area, cooperation among luxury brand sports cars. In addition to Porsche he will be dialoguing with Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini.
Isra Vision: Bolstering up
Industrial image processor lsra Vision AG, is broadening its board of management. The new Ressort Operations sector will be headed by Andreas Gerecke who will be responsible worldwide for optimizing production processes and extending infrastructures. The Prime Standard listed company is confident that this will foster efficiency and hence growth. Gerecke has 25 years of professional experience in international industrial concerns including the post of COO with a subsidiary of ABB.
SMA Solar: Savings
In response to its fall in turnover SMA Solar Technology AG is tightening its belt. Not only is the TecDax listed concern resolved to slash a total of 1600 jobs overall, but it also intends abolishing the position of CFO on the board of management. The company announced that previous CFO Lydia Sommer left the company at the end of February 2015. The management board will therefore be composed of four members led by Pierre-Pascal Urbon who will also take responsibility for the company’s financial affairs.
On leaving Siemens, Lydia Sommer joined the management board of SMA in Summer 2012, with responsibilities that included finance, human resources, compliance and IT. Since at that time, the company’s intention was to place greater emphasis on fostering internationalisation and development, the company resolved to increase the management board by the post of a full-time CFO. When questioned, SMA states that Sommer had contrinbuted to the success achieved in heightening the group’s efficiency, but the reduction of the management board is now a necessity because of how the company has developed.
Uzin Utz: terra terra
Werner Utz, chairman of the management board of Uzin Utz AG, intends to resign at the end of 2015. Thomas Müllerschön, who has been with Uzin Utz AG since 1994 and is now the General Standard-listed company’s CFO has been nominated as his successor from the beginning of 2016. A graduate in Economics and Commerce, and in Managerial Engineering, he has been with the company since 1994 and has been a member of its management board for 12 years with responsibility for finance, distribution and human resources. In his new position, he will decide on company strategy, finance, and control, human resources, IT, legal matters, organization and purchasing.
The founder’s nephew, Werner Utz, expects to join the Supervisory Board during the course of 2016. At the same time, Beat Ludin and Heinz Leibundgut – both of whom work in Uzin Utz – should join the management board.
Campus
IR male executives better paid than their female equals
Gender and market capitalisation are decisive factors in the pay levels of professionals in investor relations. In German companies, women IR executives have a basic salary of up to 100,000 Euros lower than their male colleagues – an average shortfall of some 42 percent per year. While a joint survey on pay conducted by HR Korn-Ferry consultants and the IR Club showed that Investor Relations is preponderantly female, career prospects for women are much poorer. In IR companies, fewer than 1 woman in 3 (28 percent) achieves a position of hierarchic responsibility. Women on the career ladder in this their chosen profession get inexorably left behind. While IR heads in "Micro Caps“ and “small Caps“ have a base pay of not more than 120.000 and 160.000 Euros respectively, their remuneration with “Mid Caps“can get as high as 240,000 per year, if not more. The survey interviewed 151 IR specialists and executives in Germany.
Ever fewer shareholding employees
The number of people in Germany who own shares has again dropped substantially. Despite the increase in listings, the actual number of people investing has fallen for the second year running. In 2014, approximately 500,000 people sold their shares or bond holdings as the Deutsche Aktioneinstitut (DAI) announced in Frankfurt on February 12. The number of German shareholders dropped to 8.4 million, meaning that a mere 13% of the population held shares directly or indirectly. In the view of DAI directress, Christine Bortenlänger, this new loss deals a heavy blow to shareholding culture. Indeed, German interest reached its lowest point during the financial crisis; the downward trend was triggered by the fall in number of shareholders from 4.5 to today’s 4.1 million, 6.4 percent of the population with the most pronounced reduction – from 1.2 million to 820,000 – among employees.
Capital News
Deutsche Wohnen is launching a takeover bid for Conwert of Vienna. Germany’s second largest real estate company is offering 11.50 Euros in cash for every Conwert share; on February 15, Deutsche Wohnen announced that it had already bought up almost 26 percent of them. The transaction, counting convertible bonds, is worth 1.2 thousand million Euros. Deutsche Wohnen CFO, Andreas Segal, expects to publish the bid around mid-March. To begin with, the transaction will be funded by a bridging loan of some 900 million Euros that is expected to be replaced by an increase in capital as the year goes on. By December 31, Deutsche Wohnen’s indebtedness should have returned to the initial target of some 50 percent. Deutsche Wohnen GSW recently raised 1.7 thousand million Euros by selling its shares.
TLG: fast track career in the Bourse
As soon as it arrived on the stock exchange floor in February, TLG Immobilien AG was unexpectedly ushered into the German Bourse SDax listing. The reason was real estate Deutsche Annington’s takeover of Gagfah, which till then had been MDax- listed. Gagfah’s MDax slot went to technical service provider Bertrand and the vacancy in SDax turned out to the advantage of TLG Immobilien who took it up just a few short months after its IPO of October 2014.
Heliocentris: Success breeds transparency
After the record year for sales in 2014 – the figure rumoured is 19 million Euros, an increase of 280 percent – the hybrid energy provider Heliocentris Energy Solutions AG, has announced its shift to greater transparency on the Frankfurt stock exchange. Presently listed in the Entry Standards, the company attributes its growth in turnover above all to the increase in cell phone users and to the first orders placed by OEM clients. The company is hoping to be moved to Prime Standard listing this year which is why it is complying with IFR standards in its 2014 year-end report.
Twintec: investing in the future
Twintec AG, the manufacturer of anti-soot particle filters concluded an increase in capital at the beginning of February raising almost 2.2 million Euros. The Entry Standard listed company placed the 2,195,500 new shares at 1 Euro each with institutional and private investors in Germany and Switzerland. The shareholder’s right of option was excluded and the free float amounted to 21 percent. This fresh money will be used by Twintec to ensure growth and investment in developing new products and exhaust gas treatment for the automotive industry.
Director's Dealings
| Company | Person | Function | Buy / Sell | Total value in Euro | Number of shares | Datum |
| CANCOM SE | Weinmann, Regina | SB | S | 752.400 | 20.000 | 11.02.2015 |
| Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA | Krick, Dr. Gerd | SB-Head | B | 75.150 | 1.500 | 26.02.2015 |
| HUGO BOSS AG | Albrecht, Dr. Hellmut | SB-Head | S | 292.979 | 2.655 | 13.02.2015 |
| HUGO BOSS AG | Simbeck, Bernd | SB | S | 11.036 | 100 | 13.02.2015 |
| Infineon Technologies AG | Gruber, Peter | SB | S | 261.560 | 26.000 | 16.02.2015 |
| KION GROUP AG | Riske, Gordon | MB-Head | S | 4.950.610 | 137.900 | 17.02.2015 |
| KUKA Aktiengesellschaft | Leitmeir, Carola | SB | S | 3.334 | 72 | 28.08.2014 |
| KUKA Aktiengesellschaft | Leitmeir, Carola | SB | S | 5.205 | 100 | 05.11.2014 |
| KUKA Aktiengesellschaft | Leitmeir, Carola | SB | S | 6.270 | 100 | 25.11.2014 |
| KUKA Aktiengesellschaft | Leitmeir, Carola | SB | S | 5.034 | 135 | 22.05.2013 |
| KUKA Aktiengesellschaft | Leitmeir, Carola | SB | S | 1.297 | 28 | 28.08.2014 |
| LEG Immobilien AG | Hegel, Thomas | MB-Head | S | 105.810 | 1.520 | 04.02.2015 |
| LEG Immobilien AG | Hegel, Thomas | MB-Head | S | 861.271 | 12.480 | 03.02.2015 |
| LEG Immobilien AG | Schultz, Eckhard | MB | S | 850.118 | 12.500 | 02.02.2015 |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Graef, Roger | SB | S | 28.191 | 1.586 | 11.02.2015 |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Merkamp, Christine | SB | B | 25.343 | 1.075 | 12.02.2015 |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Sulmana Vermögensverwaltung GmbH | B | 7.062 | 300 | 06.02.2015 | |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Sulmana Vermögensverwaltung GmbH | B | 1.704 | 74 | 09.02.2015 | |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Sulmana Vermögensverwaltung GmbH | B | 7.011 | 300 | 09.02.2015 | |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Sulmana Vermögensverwaltung GmbH | B | 5.204 | 226 | 06.02.2015 | |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Sulmana Vermögensverwaltung GmbH | B | 455 | 19 | 03.02.2015 | |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Sulmana Vermögensverwaltung GmbH | B | 799 | 32 | 02.02.2015 | |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Sulmana Vermögensverwaltung GmbH | B | 6.692 | 268 | 02.02.2015 | |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Sulmana Vermögensverwaltung GmbH | B | 4.739 | 200 | 03.02.2015 | |
| RWE Aktiengesellschaft | Sulmana Vermögensverwaltung GmbH | B | 6.727 | 281 | 03.02.2015 | |
| Siemens Aktiengesellschaft | Kaeser, Joe | MB-Head | B | 81.681 | 855 | 04.02.2015 |
| Siemens Aktiengesellschaft | Kaeser, Joe | MB-Head | B | 28.099 | 296 | 28.01.2015 |
| SMA Solar Technology AG | Kinne, Martin | MB | B | 49.988 | 4.084 | 05.02.2015 |
| SMA Solar Technology AG | Urbon, Pierre-Pascal | MB-Head | B | 96.773 | 8.500 | 02.02.2015 |
| Wincor Nixdorf Aktiengesellschaft | Bohlen, Jens | MB | B | 84.920 | 2.000 | 20.02.2015 |
VIPsight Shareholders
in February 2015
VIPsight Shareholder ID <click here>
M & A
Capital Stage: Sunshine in the UK
After buying up a number of solar parks in France and Italy, sun-park and wind-farm provider Capital Stage AG is now turning its attention to the United Kingdom. The SDax-listed company 3has acquired a UK portfolio of seven solar parks with a total output of about 53 megawatts of electrical energy. The investment needed amounts to some 90 million Euros including the third-party quota. So far, the sale is still subject to the usual market prerequisites. Last year, Capital Stage entered into a partnership with Gothaer Versicherung, now making use of capital linked to participatory entitlements for 150 million Euros to be used for acquisitions in Europein in Europe.
Capital Stage has announced that five of the parks acquired in South-west England and Wales are already connected to the national grid and another two will follow suit. Capital Stage have forecast a first-year turnover of approximately ten million Euros generated by the new acquisitions. The company management have announced that they have also a number of contracts for long-term electricity supply. Since they first set foot in the UK, Capital Stage’s total production capacity has grown and now stands at 440 megawatts and by the end of the year, they expect to have made use of the 150 million Euros earmarked for investing..
Paragon: digital displays
Paragon AG, manufacturer of automobile electronic systems, announced that at the beginning of the year it had acquired SphereDesign GmbH. The price of the transaction was not given. With a staff of 26, SphereDesign develops automobile command and indication systems for major manufacturers such as Daimler and Volkswagen. Its turnover for 2014 was some 4 million Euros. Tthe partial overlap of their client portfolios makes SphereDesign a highly complementary acquisition for Paragon, in particular as regards the technology for digital displays. Furthermore, Sphere Design has proved to be highly profitable in years past; one of its former managers and partners has been appointed head of Paragon’s Cockpit area.
A.X. Automation: Robotics now
Through one of its subsidiary companies, General Standard-listed M.A.X. Automation AG has acquired total ownership of specialist robot manufacturer iNDAT Robotics GmbH. At present, the robots manufactured by iNDAT with its 80 strong workforce are mostly used by producers and suppliers in the field of automobile manufacture; the company’s turnover for 2015 is forecast at approximately 18 million Euros which, by and large will be covered by orders already registered. According to M.A.X. Automation, it, itself is practically debt-free. By this acquisition M.A.X. Automation intends to extend its product range to include complex software applications and plant systems for integrated industrial robotic automation and environmental technology. The transaction was managed through the NSM Magnettechnik GmbH subsidiary company – the conditions have not been made public.
VIPsight marzo
COMPANIES
The German Mittelstand
Buhlmann's Corner
ACTIONS CORNER
Politics
People
Campus
Capital News
M & A