Vestar Capital Partners / News
Seves acquires PPC Insulators from the Riverside Company
Vienna, May 25th, 2007 - Seves S.p.A., the worldwide leader in glass and composite insulators for power transmission lines and in glass blocks for building applications, has signed a definitive agreement with The Riverside company to acquire 100% of PPC Insulators, a leading global manufacturer of high voltage porcelain insulators’ used in the power generation and distribution industries. Typical applications for PPC’s products are in substation equipment, power lines and electric railways. PPC is owned by The Riverside Company, a private equity firm with operations in North America and Europe. The transaction is subject to anti-trust approval.
Headquartered in Vienna (Austria), PPC Insulators has an international manufacturing network, with seven production sites (two in Germany, one in Austria, one in Sweden, one in Slovakia, one in Thailand and one assembly/distribution operation in the U.S.) and an eighth unit under construction in China. PPC Insulators sales network is strategically positioned to supply its customers throughout the world. In 2006, the Company recorded sales in excess of €100 million, which were mainly concentrated in Europe (69%), North America (18%), Asia (12%) and Africa.
The combined Seves/PPC Insulators entity will have consolidated sales in excess of €400 million and 19 manufacturing units strategically located to serve clients worldwide. This makes the organization one of the leading players in the growing Transmission & Distribution industry and the sole provider able to offer the best available technology (glass, porcelain, polymer) in accordance to each and any application.
Luciano Zottola, Executive Chairman of Seves, commented: “We are extremely pleased to welcome our new PPC colleagues into the Seves family. Their competencies and global footprint, as well as their great reputation and reliability earned from a long and successful presence in the T&D industry, will represent a major contribution to the building of a worldwide leading group that by available technology, manufacturing and sales networks very close to the customers, represents the best choice for utilities and OEMs anywhere in the world”.
Maurice Murphy, CEO of PPC Insulators, commented: “For many years, PPC has worked to become a global business and a leader in the substation insulator market. Joining the Seves Group is a wonderful next step in this development, since Seves is a clear market leader in the global transmission insulator market. In addition, Seves has excellent access to capital which will allow PPC to continue to expand and serve the growing demand of our global customers.”
Andrew Strauss, Managing Partner at The Riverside Company, commented: “We have devoted eight years to building this exciting company, with unique technology, global distribution and manufacturing on three continents. We are truly delighted to sell PPC to Seves, which will be a great home for it given their complementary products and distribution. While this draws to close our ownership in PPC, we are excited for the company as it moves the next chapter of its corporate life”.
Close Brothers acted as exclusive financial advisor to The Riverside Company. Jones Day acted as legal advisor to Riverside, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was legal advisor to the Seves Group.
About PPC Insulators: PPC is the worldwide leading manufacturer of porcelain insulators with special expertise in high voltage substation apparatus insulators. PPC employs 1400 people worldwide.
About Seves: Seves Group, whose main shareholders are Ergon Capital Partners and Vestar Capital Partners, is the worldwide leading manufacturer of glass and composite insulators for power transmission lines as well as of glass blocks for architectural and interior design applications. Seves Group employs 1850 people, operates 11 production facilities, of which three are in Italy, one is in Czech Republic, one is in Germany, one is in Brazil and five are in China, and has a worldwide comprehensive distribution network. In 2006, Seves Group recorded sales of €291 million.
About The Riverside Company: Riverside is the largest private equity firm focused on the smaller end of the middle market. Riverside specializes in investing in premier companies with enterprise values of less than $100 million, and partners with strong management teams to build companies. Since 1988, the firm has invested in 162 transactions with a total enterprise value of $3.4 billion. Its current portfolio in the U.S. and Europe numbers 61, with combined annual sales of $3.0 billion, EBITDA of $450 million and more than 11,000 employees. Riverside has $1.7 billion in capital under management and 15 offices around the world (New York, Cleveland, Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Budapest, Munich, Prague, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid, and Tokyo). More information on The Riverside Company can be found at www.riversidecompany.com and www.riversideeurope.com.