Chinese bidder to buy PE-backed KraussMaffei – report
A Chinese machinery group is reportedly in exclusive talks with US-based Madison Capital to buy its German rival KraussMaffei Technologies. The deal - which is likely to fetch as much as EUR700 million ($908 million) - would be the latest in a string of Chinese outbound acquisitions in Germany.
Sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that the prospective buyer is an independent Chinese company.
KraussMaffei which was founded in 1838 as locomotives maker. It subsequently went into defense products and spun off its plastics technology into a separate unit that became a part of steel group Mannesmann in 1992. The business was subsequently absorbed into a joint venture between Siemens and KKR, and Madison Capital acquired it in 2006.
KraussMaffei's sales surpassed EUR900 million for the financial year ended September 2011.
The deal is another indication of Chinese companies' desire to expand overseas - and Germany is a particular target. In January, Sany Heavy Industry, a Chinese construction-equipment maker, and CITIC Private Equity announced that they would invest EUR360 million in Putzmeister, a German manufacturer of high-tech concrete pumps.
Earlier this month, Weichai Power, a Chinese automotive and equipment manufacturer owned by Shandong Heavy Industry, also agreed to invest EUR738 million in Kion, the German forklift truckmaker backed by KKR and Goldman Sachs.
Separately, Sino-European private equity firm Mandarin Capital Partners also told AVCJ that it is nearing a EUR500 million first close for its EUR1 billion second fund. The vehicle will target advanced manufacturing and services companies across China and German-speaking parts of Europe.
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