Flint Group announces sale of XSYS to Lone Star affiliate

Antoine Fady to be the CEO of XSYS equally it is divested by the Flint Group to Lone Star Funds Photo Flintstone

On eight September 2021, the Grand duchy of luxembourg headquartered Flint Group owned by the Koch Industries, appear that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its XSYS division (formed in January 2021), which specializes in the development and supply of printing plates, sleeves and adapters, and pre-press equipment to the packaging industry, to an chapter of Lone Star Funds, a global private equity firm. The transaction remains subject field to customary endmost conditions, including regulatory approvals. The press release states that Solitary Star Funds is a leading private equity firm advising funds that invest globally in real estate, equity, credit and other fiscal assets. Amidst its globally dispersed offices, it does have an office in Dallas, Texas.

Upon endmost, the XSYS management squad volition be led by Antoine Fady as primary executive officer, Dagmar Schmidt as chief operating officer, and Martin Sauer as master financial officer. Steve Dryden volition succeed Fady as CEO of the Flintstone Grouping.

"The carve-out we are announcing today represents the side by side logical step for Flint Group and XSYS," Fady said. "It will farther enable the XSYS business to accelerate as a standalone, best in course, total solutions provider to the flexographic and letterpress pre-press industries, with tailor-made solutions developed for each market segment and customer blazon. We wait forward to working with Lone Star, whose experience and runway record will be of great benefit as we move XSYS forrad in this next phase."

"With this transaction, we volition create two dedicated management teams with increased strategic and operational focus," said Steve Dryden, newly elected Flint Group CEO. "Flint Group becomes positioned to further invest in the structurally growing segments of newspaper and board, flexible packaging and labels, serviced with our conventional and digital printing consumables. This successful strategy – centred around product and service innovation – enables Flintstone to grow with customers that value our color suggestion by helping them to standardize and reduce their costs."

"We look forrard to working with XSYS, a leading global provider of printing solutions," said Donald Quintin, President, Lone Star Opportunity Funds. "Nosotros recognize non only the resilience of the XSYS business organization and the variety of its offerings, but its growth prospects as well. Nosotros appreciate the value that XSYS provides its many customers, and have smashing conviction in the management team'due south delivery to realizing XSYS'southward potential in the years ahead."

Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE and J.P. Morgan acted every bit financial advisor and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP acted equally legal advisor to Flint Group. Lone Star was advised by Perella Weinberg Partners and Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

A bit of the back story

Its seems that instead of selling the whole company, Flint has been able to divest XSYS division as a commencement pace which was likely the idea in starting it every bit a separate division in Jan 2021. Every bit we reported about iii months ago, a Reuters report on 27 May 2022 said that the Flintstone Group was nearing the completion of a debt refinancing deal seen as a precondition for selling the company, a process initiated in belatedly 2019. However, the Covid-xix pandemic disrupted the sales process. Goldman Sachs' private equity arm and Koch Disinterestedness Evolution, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, are the current owners.

Flint Group EBITDA data during the pandemic

In our earlier study of 3 June 2021, we wrote that Flintstone Grouping has seen its sales decrease in the past 17 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, and guesstimates of its 2022 EBITDA vary from Euro 200 million to Euro 220 meg. The group'due south EBITDA was Euro 266 million in 2019. Information technology is negotiating with lenders to restructure or amend its financing of Euro 1.7 billion in the side by side few weeks for possibly another two years at slightly better rates.

The quondam U.s.a.-based Flint Ink became the second-largest printing ink maker globally in 2005 when it merged with XSYS Impress Solutions, created in 2004 by combining the ink units of BASF and Akzo Nobel Inks. The larger merger was renamed the Flintstone Group, with headquarters in Luxembourg.

In 2007 Flint Group acquired Twenty-four hours International, a pressroom consumable supplier. Goldman Sachs private equity and Koch Industries acquired the group in 2014 at a reported valuation exceeding Euro ii.ii billion.

As best equally we can brand out, from the printing release, Flint which has ink manufacturing plants in India, has divested its prepress equipment and consumables business to Lonely Star. Flint retains its ink business concern and from the initial await of it, the Solar day International offset blanket and the inkjet press businesses.

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