Packaging
Robbins & Myers, Inc. sells Romaco Group to Deutsche Beteiligungs AG
Friday 01. April 2011 - Robbins & Myers, Inc. (R&M) announced today the sale of its Romaco Group (Romaco) to Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) and its managed closed-end private equity Fund V in a management buyout. R&M and DBAG, signed a contract to that effect. The purchase price is Euro 61 million.
DBAG, based in Frankfurt, is a leading publicly listed private equity company. With a track record of 45 years, it is among the oldest private equity firms in Germany. DBAG invests in successful companies whose products and services have gained them outstanding positions in their markets. DBAG has approximately Euro 850 million under management.
“Romaco creates an excellent opportunity for us to invest in one of the most attractive and strongly growing segments in Europes mechanical engineering sector”, said Dr. Rolf Scheffells, member of the Board of Management of DB AG. “In partnering with Romacos management, we aim to take a major step forward in the groups internationalization, based on its benchmark technologies”, Dr. Scheffells went on to say. “The focus will be on, among other things, expanding the service business, strengthening the sales network and transferring process knowledge and skills to other applications, such as for the cosmetics industry. Growth will largely be organic but will also come from complementary add-on acquisitions.”
R&M has owned Romaco since 2001, during which time it supported the company as it went through a significant transition to become a more focused engineering business, developing customer solutions for various forms of drug packaging and delivery systems and complex processing applications.
“The sale of Romaco supports our strategy of becoming more focused around core Robbins & Myers technologies in fluid management and process control”, commented Peter Wallace, President and CEO of R&M. “We are pleased that we have found an investment group that we believe understands the value proposition and engineering strength of the Romaco portfolio of products. Deutsche Beteiligungs AG has signaled that they plan to grow the business with further investment and strategic acquisitions. This transaction should be a great strategic move for both companies.”
The deal is conditional upon the approval of the German anti-trust authorities and is expected to be completed by the end of April 2011.