News

Munich/Plettenberg, Febru­ary 21, 2018 — Funds advi­sed by Equi­stone Part­ners Europe (“Equi­stone”) are selling shares in Plet­ten­berg-based auto­mo­tive supplier E. WINKEMANN. The majo­rity of the shares will be acqui­red by Cathay Capi­tal MidCap Fund, which is advi­sed by Cathay Capi­tal Private Equity. Equi­stone and the mana­ging direc­tors of E. WINKEMANN will remain invol­ved. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or further details of the tran­sac­tion. The sale is subject to appro­val by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties.

In its now 80-year company history, E. WINKEMANN GmbH has become a major manu­fac­tu­rer of precision metal stam­pings and today employs 380 people. From its loca­tion in the Märki­scher Kreis region, the company prima­rily supplies well-known German and inter­na­tio­nal auto­mo­tive suppliers and manu­fac­tu­rers world­wide. Equi­stone had inves­ted in the company in May 2012. Since then, E. WINKEMANN has deve­lo­ped convin­cin­gly. Sales incre­a­sed from appro­xi­mately 66 million euros in 2012 to around 91 million euros in 2017. Last year alone, there was an incre­ase of more than ten percent.

Over the past six years, Equi­stone has accom­pa­nied E. WINKEMANN on its way from a family-owned company to a conti­nuing success­ful medium-sized enter­prise with parti­ci­pa­ting manage­ment. This made it possi­ble to support the company’s flexi­ble busi­ness model with rapid decision-making proces­ses and a high degree of free­dom on site, which ensu­res short product and deve­lo­p­ment cycles, espe­cially in the dyna­mic envi­ron­ment of the auto­mo­tive indus­try. At the same time, Equi­stone enab­led the necessary invest­ments to further expand the company. As a result, E. WINKEMANN was able to grow sustainably by deve­lo­ping new products and inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies and by addres­sing new customers.

“Toge­ther with the dedi­ca­ted manage­ment and the highly quali­fied employee base, we have mana­ged to signi­fi­cantly deve­lop an already well-posi­tio­ned company,” says Dirk Sche­kerka, Coun­try Head DACH at Equi­stone. “The know-how and expe­ri­ence of the entire work­force are key drivers of E. WINKEMANN’s strong posi­tion. The new part­ner will accom­pany the company into the next growth phase and expand its strong posi­tion in further markets, espe­cially in Asia. We are plea­sed to remain asso­cia­ted with E. WINKEMANN as a share­hol­der and to conti­nue to support the company’s development.”

“Six years ago, in the course of succes­sion plan­ning, we care­fully sear­ched for a suita­ble part­ner to secure the future of E.WINKEMANN. It turned out that we found the right part­ner in Equi­stone: Toge­ther we were able to secure long-term growth and expand into new markets,” says Dr. Bernd Sent, CEO of the company. “With its exper­tise in the auto­mo­tive supply indus­try and its profound expe­ri­ence in the syste­ma­tic and long-term orien­ted deve­lo­p­ment of medium-sized compa­nies, the Equi­stone team has suppor­ted the achie­ve­ment of our goals at all times. With Cathay Capi­tal, we now want to conti­nue on the path we have chosen.”

Respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion on the part of Equi­stone are Dirk Sche­kerka and Stefan Maser.

Advi­sors to Equi­stone: Robert W. Baird & Co. (M&A) and P+P Pöllath & Part­ners (Legal/Tax).

Equi­stone Part­ners Europe is one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors with a team of more than 35 invest­ment specia­lists in six offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, France and the UK. Equi­stone prima­rily invests in estab­lis­hed medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­ding, equity has been inves­ted in more than 140 tran­sac­tions, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Netherlands.

Since its foun­da­tion in 1938, the tradi­tio­nal company E. WINKEMANN has deve­lo­ped into one of the most important and effi­ci­ent manu­fac­tu­rers of precision metal stam­pings. The Plet­ten­berg (NRW) site now employs around 380 people. Custo­mers come from almost all indus­trial sectors, with the global auto­mo­tive and auto­mo­tive supply indus­try being the main focus. For precision stam­ped metal parts, E. WINKEMANN is a compe­tent part­ner for the imple­men­ta­tion of custo­mer-speci­fic requi­re­ments. The company relies on its 80 years of expe­ri­ence and the supe­rior tech­ni­cal know-how of its employees. High-precision stam­ped, embos­sed, bent and drawn parts are produ­ced in a modern machine park with a high degree of in-house produc­tion depth. All areas of the company are subject to a conti­nuous impro­ve­ment process based on effec­tive zero-defect stra­te­gies. E. WINKEMANN GmbH offers a compre­hen­sive range of services from product deve­lo­p­ment to series production.