Continuing its financial transformation, Heidelberg is selling the Gallus Group to the Swiss packaging business benpac holding ag in Stans, six years after purchasing the company.
The transaction will see benpac assume ownership of Gallus Holding AG in St. Gallen, Gallus Ferd. Rüesch AG in St. Gallen, Gallus Druckmaschinen GmbH in Langgöns, Heidelberg Web Carton Converting GmbH (WCC) in Weiden in der Oberpfalz, and Menschick Trockensysteme GmbH in Renningen – five sites with a total of some 430 employees in Germany and Switzerland. With an agreed purchase price of some 120 million euros, Heidelberg is expecting the deal to generate earnings in the mid two-digit million-euro range. The parameters will be finalised at the time of closing. The sale, which still needs to be approved by the relevant bodies and is subject to other condition precedents, is set to take effect before the end of 2020.
‘We are selling our narrow-web rotary and rotary flexographic printing activities to focus more closely on innovative solutions for the entire printed sheet value chain. We will be retaining our in-house digital expertise and, by collaborating with benpac on the Gallus Labelfire, we will also be making further progress with the digitisation of conventional presses. At the same time, we will remain a major supplier on the growing label market with our sheetfed offset presses,’ said Heidelberg CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer.
The sale confuses the issue of the Gallus Labelfire, the hybrid press which uses Heidelberg digital print technology. The company say that it in the future it will work together closely with benpac on the Gallus Labelfire digital label press, and will continue supplying the digital printing unit (DPU) and consumables for this press.
‘Our aim is to ensure the long-term financial stability of Heidelberg, and all the measures since our transformation started in March this year have been geared toward this objective. Selling the Gallus Group is another key part of our realignment and follows on from the successes we have achieved so far during the transformation process. This further major boost to our liquidity and Group equity will be a big help, especially during the coronavirus crisis,’ underlines Heidelberg CFO Marcus A. Wassenberg.
