Investment AB Latour (publ) has today signed an agreement to divest its business area Specma Group to Hydra-Grene, a wholly owned business of Danish long-term industrial conglomerate Schouw & Co. The divestment is subject to approval by relevant antitrust authorities and closing is expected in connection with the year-end.
Specma is an industry leading company in the Nordic market, providing hydraulic application systems and components to its customers. The business area is divided into two divisions, a Global Division which supplies components and hydraulic systems to large international OEM customers and a Nordic Division which supplies components and hydraulic systems to Nordic OEM customers, serves the after-market via some 100 resellers and offers a MRO concept. In the recent years, Specma has had a major focus on improving internal processes and increased efficiency. The work undertaken by long-term improvement activities has brought good results. For the last twelve months, Specma reports net sales of SEK 1 355 m, operating profit of SEK 67 m and has 755 employees.
“We’re very pleased that we have an agreement in place with Latour to acquire Specma Group. We believe Specma is a perfect match for Hydra-Grene and consider this transaction to be a unique opportunity to create what will be the largest supplier of hydraulics systems in the Nordic region with its 1000 highly-skilled employees. Combined, we have a number of specialty areas that are second-to-none, including in production, engineering, business acumen and delivery power. We now have the potential to grow both in the Nordic region and globally, and we look forward to developing our exposure in the hydraulics field,” explains Hydra-Grene CEO Erik Lodberg.
“We have been owners of Specma for a very long time, actually since Latour was founded”, says Jan Svensson, CEO of Investment AB Latour. “Since we have gradually become more stringent in our acquisition and development strategy, with focus on businesses with proprietary products, we chose to communicate earlier this year that we plan to divest Specma. It is natural for Latour in the long term to invest more resources in activities that are consistent with our investment criteria. I am convinced that Schouw will be a good owner of Specma, which thereby can continue to develop.”
Impact on the Latour Group
The net asset value communicated in Latour’s latest quarterly report on September 30, 2015, was SEK 275 per share. The divestment of Specma Group implies that the net asset value would have been unchanged at SEK 275 per share, if the transaction had been completed before September 30. The net debt in the Latour Group, which by the end of September amounted to SEK 3 581 m, will decrease by approximately SEK 780 m.
Specma Group contributes SEK 47 m out of the consolidated net result of SEK 2 924 m for the twelve months preceding September 30. The transaction is expected to yield a capital gain of approximately SEK 180 m in the consolidated accounts when completed.
Göteborg, November 9, 2015
INVESTMENT AB LATOUR (PUBL)
Jan Svensson
CEO
For further information, please contact:
Anders Mörck, CFO, Investment AB Latour, +46 706 46 52 11
Pär Arvidsson, Director of Business Development, Investment AB Latour, +46 70 324 72 53
Investment AB Latour is a mixed investment company consisting primarily of wholly-owned industrial operations and an investment portfolio of listed holdings in which Latour is the principal owner or one of the principal owners. The investment portfolio consists of ten substantial holdings with a market value of about SEK 34 billion per September 30, 2015. The wholly-owned industrial operations generated a turnover of approximately SEK 7.6 billion in 2014.