KKR takes control of WMF

KKR, together with WMF co-owner Andreas Weissenbacher, now holds a 90.3% stake in WMF through the holding company Finedining Capital. The buyout house bought 74.7% in preference shares from stakeholders and combined this with the stake held by Weissenbacher's company FIBA.

Payment of the €58 per share, for more than 3.2 million shares, is expected to be made on 3 September. KKR already held more than 300,000 preference shares and 6.7 million ordinary shares. Earlier this week, the GP bought almost 11,000 shares via the stock exchange.

Before the offering, Finedining and FIBA held 72% and 25% of the ordinary shares respectively. Finedining also held 6% of the preference shares.

In July, unquote" reported KKR had made an offer of €53 per share via its holding company Finedining Capital. The offer ran until 11 August and represented a premium of approximately 11% on the last three months' average share price. The GP already owned 72% of WMF through acquisitions made in 2012.

WMF has been listed on the Stuttgart stock exchange for 127 years, but KKR said it plans to squeeze out remaining shares from minority shareholders and delist the company. The GP seems on track to do so, having needed a combined 90% of the overall capital in order to pursue a delisting of the business.

WMF is also carrying out a restructuring programme to save €30m per year: 50 branches and a large portion of the logistics centre will be closed, the product range will be reduced and some of the 6,100 jobs will be cut. It currently offers in the region of 35,000 products.

Previous funding
In 2006, Capvis Equity Partners bought a 52% stake in WMF for €19.05 per share from Deutsche Bank and two insurance companies. The GP focused on building the company's coffee machine offering and reorganised the business into five divisions: retail, consumer goods, consumer electric, professional hotel equipment and coffee machines. It also expanded WMF into the Czech Republic and Asia.

KKR then bought a 37% stake for €238m at €31.70 per share in July 2012 from Capvis via its European fund. It also acquired 52% of voting shares for €47 per share, as well as a further 5% of preferential shares.

Company
WMF was founded in Geislingen an der Steige in 1853 by the miller Daniel Straub, with brothers Louis and Friedrich Schweizer. It merged with rival Knights in 1880, operating as Württemberg Metal Goods Factory, listing on the Stuttgart Stock Exchange in September 1887. The company has had approximately 6,000 employees since the First World War.

WMF specialises in making metal cutlery, kitchen utensils and automatic coffee machines, and operates more than 200 speciality stores in German-speaking countries.

It achieved a turnover of €426.6m in the first half of 2014, with an EBIT of €27.6m, up from €17.7m in 2013. Its international revenue is also up 7% on 2013 at €218.7m. It attributed its lower 2014 retail business revenue of €66.8m to store closures and streamlining of the product range.

People
Peter Feld is chairman of the WMF executive board.

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• Topics
• DACH
• Buyouts
• Consumer
• Germany
• KKR