voestalpine sells Buderus Edelstahl to Mutares

Vienna (ÖS)/ Munich — The Linz-based steel and proces­sing group Voest­al­pine has sold its strugg­ling German subsi­diary Bude­rus Edel­stahl to the Munich-based finan­cial inves­tor Muta­res. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. Muta­res specia­li­zes in restruc­tu­ring cases. The sale is subject to appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties. — The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted by the end of the 4th calen­dar quar­ter of 2024. Foun­ded in 1731, Bude­rus Edel­stahl GmbH (“Bude­rus”) is a manu­fac­tu­rer of high-quality special steels with a focus on tool steel, engi­nee­ring steel, open-die forgings, closed-die forgings, hot-rolled strip, cold-rolled strip and semi-finis­hed rolled products, which it supplies to a wide range of custo­mers world­wide. Bude­rus is a market leader in the tool steel and engi­nee­ring steel segments and is known for its high-quality products. The company’s diver­si­fied custo­mer port­fo­lio with around 350 active custo­mers is spread across various sectors and end markets, such as light vehic­les, mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, the truck indus­try and wind power. With around 1,100 employees, the company gene­ra­ted sales of around EUR 360 million in the 2023/2024 finan­cial year. Bude­rus has a highly indus­tria­li­zed produc­tion site in Wetz­lar with a maxi­mum annual proces­sing capa­city of around 360 kilo­tons. The company curr­ently employs 1,130 people. 

Johan­nes Laumann, CIO of Muta­res (photo © Muta­res), commen­ted: “With the acqui­si­tion of Bude­rus Edel­stahl, we are further streng­thening our Engi­nee­ring & Tech­no­logy segment in the area of steel compon­ents and secu­ring our own steel base. Thanks to our exis­ting product range and broad custo­mer struc­ture, Bude­rus Edel­stahl will also bene­fit in the future, redu­cing its depen­dence on indi­vi­dual market risks and thus posi­tio­ning itself more broadly for future growth within the Muta­res Group. In line with the current situa­tion at Bude­rus Edel­stahl, we will nego­tiate an appro­priate redun­dancy plan with the employee repre­sen­ta­ti­ves in the event of a possi­ble need to reduce the number of employees affec­ted. In order to opti­mize manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses and further stream­line the cost struc­ture, we look forward to lever­aging the exper­tise of our in-house consul­tants in opti­mi­zing manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses by imple­men­ting best prac­ti­ces from our port­fo­lio compa­nies.” Bude­rus Edel­stahl is Muta­res’ four­te­enth acqui­si­tion in 2024. Listed voest­al­pine AG is a leading global steel and tech­no­logy group with combi­ned mate­ri­als and proces­sing exper­tise. The globally active group of compa­nies compri­ses around 500 Group compa­nies and sites with 51,600 employees in more than 50 count­ries. In the finan­cial year 2023/24, the Group gene­ra­ted reve­nue of EUR 16.7 billion. 

Advi­sor to voest­al­pine AG: Gleiss Lutz 

Led by Dr. Alex­an­der Schwarz (Part­ner, Düssel­dorf) and Dr. Moritz Alex­an­der Riese­ner (Part­ner, both M&A, Munich). Dr. Ralf Mors­häu­ser (Part­ner, Munich), Kai Zimutta, Dr. Fabian Mumme, Dr. Phil­ipp Lucks, Thomas Felix Bald­zuhn (all Düssel­dorf), Dr. Tobias Falk­ner (Coun­sel), Jan Neumayer (all M&A, both Munich), Dr. Thomas Winzer (Part­ner), Dr. Tobias Abend (Coun­sel), Henrike West­phal (all Employ­ment, all Frank­furt), Dr. Gabriele Roßkopf (Part­ner), Dr. Silke Hoff­mann, Dr. Sima Samari (all Corpo­rate, all Stutt­gart), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (Part­ner), Dr. Lars Kind­ler (Coun­sel), Matthias Hahn, Dr. Nena Huse­mann (all Public Law, all Düssel­dorf), Dr. Matthias Werner (Part­ner), Dr. Feli­zi­tas Casper, Dr. Sebas­tian Girschick (all Munich), Dr. Chris­to­pher Noll (all IP/Tech, Stutt­gart), Dr. Tim Weber (Part­ner), Maxi­mi­lian Leisen­hei­mer, Michael Clever, (all Real Estate, all Frank­furt), Dr. Jenni­fer Hattaß (Anti­trust, Stutt­gart), Fried­rich Schlott (Coun­sel, Restruc­tu­ring, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Ocka Stumm (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Dr. Hanna Datzer (Düssel­dorf, both Tax). In-house, a voest­al­pine legal team led by Dr. Sabine Kelmayr-Tippow (Head of Legal, M&A and Compli­ance, voest­al­pine High Perfor­mance Metals) with the signi­fi­cant parti­ci­pa­tion of Chris­toph Hauser, Tamara Tomic and Victo­ria Raneg­ger assis­ted with the
transaction.