International private equity firm, Cinven, today announces that it has signed an agreement for the sale of CeramTec GmbH (‘CeramTec’ or ‘the Group’), a leading global manufacturer of high performance ceramics, to a BC Partners-led consortium including the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (together the ‘BC Partners Consortium’) for an undisclosed consideration.

Headquartered in Plochingen, Germany, CeramTec manufactures high performance ceramics for various end-markets including medical, automotive, industrial and electronic.  Its proprietary product portfolio includes hip replacement implant components (notably the BIOLOX® brand), high speed cutting tools and electrical / thermal ceramic solutions.  The Group employs more than 3,400 people across 20 facilities worldwide. In the 12 months to June 2017, CeramTec generated revenues of €538 million and adjusted EBITDA of €196 million.

Cinven acquired CeramTec in August 2013 from Rockwood Holdings, Inc. for €1.5 billion.  During Cinven’s ownership, CeramTec has performed strongly increasing revenues from €425 million to €538 million and improving its EBITDA margin from 32% to 37% while investing substantially in new capacity and growing its work force by more than 300 people to over 3,400.

In particular, Cinven worked with CeramTec to:

Streamline the organisation and strengthen Group management with the reorganisation from 16 independent business units to two business segments – Medical and Industrial; the appointment of a new management board including the new CEO, Henri Steinmetz (March 2016), and new COO of the Medical business, Dr. Hadi Saleh (July 2015); and the strengthening of the team below the Board level.

Accelerate organic growth through investment in additional capacity including the Medical plant expansion at Marktredwitz (€40 million investment), supporting innovation and product development, increased focus on strategic customers and accelerating growth outside of CeramTec’s historical home markets particularly into the United States and China;

Increase productivity and capital efficiency through intensive ongoing improvement programmes and centralising production management, resulting in substantially increased margins and free cash flow generation; and

Execute a successful value-accretive buy and build strategy with the acquisitions of US-based DAI Ceramics (in 2015) and the UK-based Electro Ceramics division of Morgan Advanced Materials (in 2017) reinforcing CeramTec’s strength in aerospace and piezo ceramics.

Bruno Schick, Partner at Cinven and Head of the Frankfurt office, said:

“CeramTec has been a highly successful investment due to a combination of factors: Cinven’s sector expertise, in both Healthcare and Industrials; our longstanding presence and track record in Germany which enabled us to identify and execute the transaction; our international capabilities facilitating the Group’s expansion into the US and China; and our focus and conviction.  We have worked alongside an excellent management team, as well as a highly qualified and dedicated workforce at CeramTec and we wish them every success in the future. We are delighted that the BC Partners consortium is acquiring CeramTec and will continue to invest in the business.”

Pontus Pettersson, Partner at Cinven, added:

“CeramTec is an excellent business with great prospects.  We have worked hard to transform the Group into a more agile, commercial and global enterprise delivering strong financial results. We have invested significantly, strengthened management, simplified the organisation and improved efficiency and product innovation.  We accelerated organic and international growth and executed a number of value-add acquisitions creating a first class high performance ceramics business.”

Henri Steinmetz, Chief Executive Officer at CeramTec, commented:

“Our journey from a German-centric technology leader, towards a truly global market leader is well under way. Over the past four years we have doubled our ceramic implant capacity in Marktredwitz, we have simplified the organisational set-up in our Industrial segment and we have created a leading platform in piezo ceramics with the UK acquisition of Morgan Advanced Materials. We are very grateful to Cinven for its leadership and its commitment to transforming and growing our business and we look forward to working with our new owners together as partners to realise the next stage of growth.”

The completion of the sale of CeramTec is subject to customary regulatory approval and expected in the first half of 2018.

Advisors to Cinven on the CeramTec transaction included: BofA Merrill Lynch (M&A), Morgan Stanley (M&A), Clifford Chance (Legal), McKinsey (Commercial), PricewaterhouseCoopers (Financial), Ernst & Young (Tax) and ERM (Environmental).

Along with the management, Gimv is taking over the German WEMAS from NORD Holding, which has held a majority stake since 2011. Gimv is acquiring a significant majority, while the balance will be held by the company’s management team under the leadership of CEO Markus Schwinn. Next to growing its core business in the DACH-region, WEMAS wants to expand into adjacent road safety markets and further grow its international business.

WEMAS Absperrtechnik GmbH (www.wemas.de) was established in 1971 and has grown into a full-range provider of certified passive mobile road safety equipment, including protective barriers, delineators, base plates, warning lamps and traffic cones. The company supplies both wholesalers and roadwork safety service providers serving the road safety, infrastructure and construction markets, predominantly in the DACH-region.

The company operates in a growing market. WEMAS is well placed to benefit from this growth thanks to its innovative and high-quality product and value-added service offering, including the highest number of certified road safety products in the industry and a wide range of customised products.

WEMAS is located in Gütersloh (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), where most of the products are made. With more than 120 employees, it serves more than 1000 clients thus realizing a turnover of EUR 33.7 million (2016). In the coming years, the company intends to further grow its passive mobile safety business in DACH and internationally. Moreover, the company wants to explore further growth into adjacent road safety market segments, potentially through acquisitions.

Markus Schwinn, CEO of WEMAS Absperrtechnik, explains: “I am looking forward to bringing WEMAS to the next level with the help of Gimv, a partner with a strong track record as growth investor. This collaboration will enable us to speed up the growth trajectory of our company.”

Ruben Monballieu, Principal in the Gimv Sustainable Cities Platform, continues: “Increasing traffic, growing investments in road infrastructure and safety concerns drive the need for safety products. WEMAS is well positioned to capture growth in the road safety market thanks to its fully integrated value chain and its focus on product innovation and value added services.”

“We are proud that Gimv can use its network and its experience in building leading companies to co-shape the future of WEMAS together with the company’s ambitious and entrepreneurial management team. With this fourth investment in the DACH-region over the past twelve months, Gimv once again underlines its ambition to further build its franchise in the region,” adds Sven Oleownik, Head of Gimv Germany.

The transaction is subject to the approval by the competition authorities. No further financial details of the transaction will be announced.

Investment AB Latour has today acquired 14,461,809 shares in Alimak Group for SEK 134 per share, corresponding to a total of SEK 1,938 m. Sellers are Apolus Holding AB whose principal owner is Triton Fund II. The acquired shares corresponds to 26.7 per cent of the votes and equity in Alimak Group. Alimak Group has a world-leading position within vertical access solutions for industry and the construction sector, with customers supported by key mega trends such as urbanization and environmental friendly energy production.

Clarification before reporting of changes in shareholding to Swedish authorities (“Finansinspektionen”)
In order to prevent possible misunderstandings due to the forthcoming reporting of changes in shareholding to Finansinspektionen, Latour want to clarify that the reporting will be made by Investment AB Latour’s principal owner, the Douglas family. The Douglas family already owns 112,526 shares in Alimak Group. The current regulations stipulate that reporting of changes in shareholdings to Finansinspektionen should then be done by the Douglas family and not by Latour, although Investment AB Latour will take the principal ownership in Alimak Group.

The total holding that the Douglas family will report to Finansinspektionen is as follows: The Douglas family 112,526 shares, Investment AB Latour 14,461,809 shares and Latour’s wholly-owned subsidiary Karpalunds Ångbryggeriaktiebolag 40,000 shares.

Göteborg, September 14, 2017

Investment AB Latour (publ)
Jan Svensson, CEO

For further information please contact:
Jan Svensson, CEO Investment AB Latour, +46 705 77 16 40

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 nine substantial holdings with a market value of about SEK 46 billion. The wholly-owned industrial operations generated a turnover of approximately SEK 8 billion in 2

Almi Invest invests SEK 1.5 million in Linköping company SweGaN. The company has developed a patented process to produce semiconductor materials, which can be very important in areas such as telecom, where it can produce significantly more energy-efficient base stations. In the issue of a total of 6 million is also participating private investors. The money will go to increase Swegans production.

SweGaN sells a material, known as epiwafers coated with gallium nitride, which customers use to develop their own components. The company has developed a unique process for providing superior performance, higher efficiency and lower energy consumption than current methods. This is of great interest in telecom and space industry, where the need for increased bandwidth and lower power consumption is large. Devices based on SweGaNs technologies can reduce energy consumption in a base station with 20 – 30 percent, while the capacity increases 10 to 100 times.

– SweGaNs technology with its superior performance is unique, says Pär Carlshamre, Investment Manager at Almi Invest. It provides a disruptivt materials that can create components that no one has thought about before.

SweGaNs technology can be used in telecommunications, defense and aerospace industries. The company has already paying customers from research and development labs of component manufacturers and universities. SweGaNs strategy is now developing its offering from simply selling their material to even design their own new components.

– This investment enables us to take the next step and purchase your own reactor, which is needed to produce our material, says SweGaNs founder and CEO Olof Kordina. That way we can scale up our business and meet a real need in the market.

Norvestor invests in Wexus Norvestor VII,L.P.(“Norvestor”), a fund managed by Norvestor Equity AS, has signed an agreement to invest in Wexus Gruppen AS (“Wexus”or “The Company”) Wexus is a rapidly growing specialist within semi-permanent modular buildings for the public, industrial and infrastructure market.

They offer highly cost efficient products and services for its markets, using high quality and low cost manufacturing from their fully owned production facility in Tallinn, Estonia. Modules are either sold or provided on longer-term rental agreements. Wexus has the ability to undertake the full scope from tendering to commissioning. The Company has experienced strong growth since its inception through the positive market development and taking significant market share.“ We have significant experience from the modular building market and believe we have the right combination of integrated production and project execution capabilities. The Wexus team has done a solid job of positioning us as one of the preferred providers to the public, infrastructure and industrial markets. These markets all have a sound underlying growth for the foreseeable future. We believe we are unique in our diversification in terms of geographies, module types and segments, which makes our business robust and flexible. Together with Norvestor we will seek to grow within our core markets and look for new growth opportunities. To enable continued high growth, we acknowledge the need for support and are therefore very pleased to have Norvestor on board as a partner”, says Egil Messmer, CEO of Wexus.“We are very pleased with the agreement to partner with Wexus. Their unique position and highly experienced team, along with a very cost effective and scalable structure, makes the Company an ideal platform for Norvestor in the modular facility market.

Wexus has proven an impressive ability to understand the needs of the market and deliver upon this. With the facility in Tallinn and their many long-term partners, they also have good control of the complete value chain of its products and services, making Wexus a highly reliable partner for their end clients.”, says Following the acquisition, Norvestor will become the largest shareholder in Wexus with approximately 60% of the shares; the management will hold the remaining shares. Wexus had consolidated pro-forma revenues of NOK 55 million in 2015 and NOK 70 million in 2016 and is expected to grow by more than 100% during 2017.  Wexus employs 79 people and is headquartered in Stavanger, orway

Wexus is a leading specialised manufacturer and provider of modular buildings to governmental institutions, municipalities and customers within the oil & gas, infrastructure, utilities, and shipbuilding segments. The buildings are provided either on a rental contract or through sale of permanent installations. The Company has a lean and cost efficient set -up in combination with focus on high-quality modules, which makes them perceived as one of the best “value -for-money” providers in the industry. Wexus has built a wide range of customers from all its major segments. Production is done from their fully owned facility in Tallinn. The Wexus team of 79 is based at the headquarters in Stavanger (Norway) and in the production facility in Tallinn (Estonia).

Read more at www.wexus.no

Norvestor Equity AS is a leading private equity company focusing on the lower mid-market in the Nordic region. The team has worked together since 1991 making it one of the most experienced private equity teams in Norway, having executed 65 investments with 260 follow-on M&A transactions, in addition to executing 43 exits including 14 IPOs. Norvestor focuses on investment opportunities in growth companies, making platform investments principally in Norway and Sweden, with potential to achieve a leading Nordic or international position either through organic growth, through acquisitions or by expanding into new countries. Funds advised by Norvestor are currently invested in the following portfolio companies; Life Europe, Johnson Metall, Sentech (formerly Advantec Sensing), Apsis, Aptilo, Cegal, Marine Aluminium, Crayon, Robust, iSurvey, Future Production, Nomor, PG Flow Solutions, Roadworks, Permascand, 4Service, HydraWell, Eneas, Presserv, Nordic Camping & Resort, READ Cased Hole, IT Gården and NetNordic.