CITIC Capital buys Japan's Nippon Oil Pump from Wendel

Founded in 1919, NOP manufactures industrial products used in machine tools, specialty vehicles, and agricultural and construction machinery. The acquisition makes CITIC Capital NOP's third PE owner. Japan Private Equity and Sanyo Electric acquired the company from its founding family in 2004, and sold it to Polaris Capital Group in 2008. Polaris exited the business to Wendel in 2013.

The purchase price values NOP at around 11x adjusted EBITDA, according to a statement, and represents a EUR13 million premium to Wendel's valuation of the company as of August 2018. Under Wendel's ownership, NOP's revenue has grown from JPY4.8 billion in 2013 to JPY6.1 billion last year.

"NOP's management team has done a terrific job over the past several years expanding the company's capabilities in Japan and overseas, and building a solid foundation for long-term growth," said Wendel CEO André François-Poncet. He added that the divestment was in line with the firm's commitment to simplify its portfolio and focus on larger equity investments in Europe, North America, and Africa.

CITIC Capital is investing from its third Japan fund, which closed last year at JPY30 billion ($268 million). The vehicle targets Japanese companies with strong China growth prospects for which CITIC Capital leverage ties to its sister PE business in China and to conglomerate CITIC Group.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Industrials
• Buyouts
• Japan
• manufacturing
• CITIC Capital