StarragHeckert completes Dörries Scharmann purchase

StarragHeckert has taken over 100% of the Dörries Scharmann machine tool company group for a purchase price of €70 million, financed from its own funds and supported by a bridging loan of €50 million from StarragHeckert majority shareholder Walter Fust, a member of StarragHeckert Holding AG's board of directors since 1988. The Dörries Scharmann Technologie GmbH, with headquarters in Mönchengladbach, Germany, produces machine tool brands Dörries, Droop+Rein, Ecospeed, Scharmann and Berthiez for drilling, turning, milling and grinding of middle sized to very large working pieces. Its products are exported worldwide and cover the whole field of machining working processes. The company has manufacturing plants in Germany (Mönchengladbach and Bielefeld) and in France (St Etienne), as well as sales branches in Great Britain, USA, Brazil, Russia and China. The original brands Dörries Scharmann will continue and will continue to be managed by the existing team, under the leadership of CEO Dr Norbert Hennes and CFO Daniel Rosenthal. A common integration team will establish detailed action plans to optimise organisation and processes, and achieve synergies. It is planned that all the Dörries Scharmann manufacturing plants at Mönchengladbach, Bielefeld, Erfurt (all Germany) and St. Etienne (France), together with those of StarragHeckert at Rorschacherberg, Geneva (Both Switzerland), Chemnitz (Germany) and Haddenham (UK - TTL) will be maintained. Dörries Scharmann stayed profitable throughout the recent economic crisis and a turnover of around €130 million in 2010, with 790 employees. In 2009, the company realised a profit in a high single-digit euro million range: 2010 earning figures are not available yet. The accumulated turnover of the two companies, with 1,500 employees, amounts to around £262 million. The stated industrial logic for the merger is that while both serve the same target markets, their products are complementary. Whereas StarragHeckert is strong in the complex machining of large titanium working pieces, Dörries Scharmann's focus is on machine tools for machining aluminium and composites, both for the aerospace industry. In the energy sector, a broad range of turning lathes and large precision machining centres for the manufacture of gas and steam turbines, and for the increasing need of wind energy plants will be offered in the future. In the transport sector, the StarragHeckert horizontal machining centre range is enlarged by large machining centres from Dörries Scharmann for the production of mould for car body dies. Finally, the precision engineering segment is completed by the combination of ultra-precision machining centres from SIP and grinding machines from Berthiez, and by the precision engineering machines from StarragHeckert and Droop+Rein. Geographically, a broader presence in North America, India, Brazil and Russia results from the merger, as does a substantially stronger market position in China. Both companies have declared the merger as an ideal solution. Frank Brinken, CEO of StarragHeckert, said: "We fit perfectly in every respect, the preconditions for a successful common future are ideal. This is the more so as in the past we have closely observed the development of Dörries Scharmann and we know that the entire management of Dörries Scharmann welcomes the acquisition." Speaking for Dörries Scharmann, Norbert Hennes, CEO, said: "We are very happy having found in StarragHeckert a financially and technologically strong industrial partner, ensuring that the Dörries Scharmann companies can approach a stable future. I look forward to exploring the great opportunities which this merger will bring us."