CHICAGO — It’s official: Chicago
investment group Madison Capital Partners has purchased Mannesmann
Plastics Machinery GmbH, in a deal announced July 5, as Madison vaults
up to become the world’s largest maker of plastics equipment.
Madison picks up some of the best-known brands:
Krauss-Maffei, Demag Plastics Group, Netstal
and Berstorff. Madison has purchased the
MPM companies from New York-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.,
for undisclosed terms. MPM had sales of about 1.3 billion euros
($1.6 billion) in 2005.
The Minneapolis office of Goldsmith Agio
Helms issued a July 5 news release to announce
the deal has closed for Madison, its client.
Goldsmith Agio Helms, a U.S.-based private
banking firm, worked with Agio International
in Europe. Agio International is a joint venture between Goldsmith
Agio Helms and several independent European investment banking firms.
KKR bought the machinery group in 2002 from
German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG,
which retained an ownership stake in MPM.
Goldsmith Agio Helms approached MPM management
and arranged a series of meetings with Madison
Capital. MPM is based in Munich, Germany.
Larry Gies, president and chief executive
officer of Madison Capital, could not be
reached for comment. A Madison spokeswoman said he was traveling
in Germany and not available.
David Iverson, a managing director of Goldsmith
Agio Helms who helped set up the deal, said
Gies “is going
to focus like a laser on this business.”
Goldsmith has a long track record with Madison
Capital. The firm has completed nine transactions
for Madison Capital during the past 12 years,
including Madison’s recent sales
of hot-runner supplier Synventive Molding
Solutions Inc. last summer, extrusion equipment supplier Dynisco
LLC in 2004 and API Heat Transfer Technologies, a maker of industrial
heat exchangers and thermal processing systems, also last year.
In the plastics industry, most of the mergers
and acquisitions have centered on packaging
companies. Plastics machinery has been relatively
quiet. But expect to see more action in the equipment sector, said
Iverson, who works out of Goldsmith’s Minneapolis
office.
“We think there will definitely be more consolidation in the
United States, and particularly in Europe,” Iverson said. Goldsmith
Agio Helms, he said, “is working on some other projects in plastics
machinery.”
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