LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), October 18 (SeeNews) – The consortium of the largest shareholders of Slovenian electrical installations manufacturer ETI Elektroelement signed a deal for the sale of a majority stake with international group Andlinger & Company, worth some 27.5 million euro ($30.3 million), Slovenia's "bad bank" DUBT said.
Andlinger & Company will pay 55 euro per share to a total of 950 ETI shareholders which hold among themselves 76% of all company shares, DUBT, as one of the shareholders, said in a statement on Monday.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
The deal is expected to be finalised by the end of 2016.
ETI is well recognized on the market and has a leading position in sales of fuses in many countries of Western and Eastern Europe.
Andlinger & Company will finance the purchase fully from its own funds. By developing all current production programmes and giving them impetus, the private investment and management firm is confident that by 2020 it will increase ETI's revenues by more than 30% to 140 million euro.
"Dividends for the foreseeable future will be drastically reduced to the legal limit. This will enable ETI to use majority of its generated cash flow for further expansion and R&D, which we intend to increase", Ernst Reichmayr, a partner in Andlinger & Company, said after the signing ceremony, according to the statement.
ETI is the biggest employer in the Slovene Central Sava Valley. The new owner plans to increase the employee count further, which is particularly promising, ETI CEO Tomaz Berginc said.
"With the new majority shareholder new opportunities and markets will open for ETI. Since the takeover will be fully financed with own funds, ETI will have all that it needs to further expand and bring new products on the market", Berginc added.
The sale process started almost two years ago, when ETI shareholders to find a new owner with long term plans for the company. The process was entrusted to ALTA Skupina that managed to connect around 950 shareholders in a consortium comprising a large number of current and former employees.
International group Andlinger & Company has offices in New York, Vienna and Brussels. It was founded in 1976 by an American citizen of Austrian origin, Gerhard Andlinger, who is still a minority owner. Andlinger & Company "represents a group of successful international entrepreneurs who invest mainly in sound industrial companies with high growth potential," acccording to the statement.
($=0.907514 euro)