Exit: Equistone sells E. WINKEMANN to Cathay Capital

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.