Kautex gains financial backing for MBO

With backing from private equity firm Steadfast Capital (Frankfurt, Germany), blowmolding machine manufacturer Kautex Maschinenbau’s management has bought back the firm from private equity firm Adcuram GmbH (Munich), pending regulatory approval. Formerly part of the SIG group, Kautex was purchased by Adcuram in 2004, and since then has reentered the consumer packaging market, which it had abandoned as part of SIG so as not to compete with fellow SIG holding Corpoplast.

The private equity assisted management buyout consisted of five members of Kautex’s executive group. The company said in a statement that the addition of capital would help Kautex expand its global market position. AXA Private Equity (Paris) purchased the Steadfast fund from ING Group, agreeing to invest in the Steadfast Capital Fund II, which includes the Kautex deal and is intended to raise €200-250 million for acquisitions. It had €150 million at the time of its first closing. One third of that has been invested, with Kautex being the fund’s fourth transaction. According to Clemens Busch, a Steadfast partner, the previous acquisitions include Dahlback, a chain of baker outlets acquired in the fall 2005; Peine, a producer of men’s clothes, acquired in the summer of 2006; and FEP, a producer of electrical connectors for cars, which was acquired in December 2006

The fund’s predecessor, Steadfast Capital Fund I, had 14 holdings in small and medium-sized businesses. In October 2006, Adcuram purchased the Battenfeld injection molding machinery business of German industrial conglomerate SMS; it still owns that business (see e-Weekly Oct. 20, 2006 for initial report). The Kautex executives who bought out the firm from Adcuram and maintain a 25% stake, with Steadfast holding the remainder, are Olaf Weiland, Andreas Lichtenauer, Thilo Schmidt, Frank Roehrlein, and Andras Schulz.—[email protected]