Bencis and Gimv to sell Xeikon to Flint

Pending regulatory approval, the trade sale is expected to complete before the end of 2015.

The deal will see Bencis and Gimv divest their joint controlling stake to Flint. The new parent, a Luxembourg-headquartered printing supplier with annual revues of €2.1bn, will integrate Xeikon within the new subsidiary Flint Group Digital Printing Solutions, to be headed by Xeikon CEO Wim Maes.

According to Gimv, the sale will result in €5.2m in proceeds for the co-investment arm Gimv-XL.

Previous funding
The transaction comes two years after Bencis and Gimv took Xeikon off the stock market. The take-private, completed in July 2013, had an €168m enterprise value – approximately 5x EBITDA.

The GP duo first acquired a 65.68% in the business via the XBC newco, which was later increased to a 95% holding via a mandatory public offer.

The firms then moved towards a squeeze-out for XBC to secure 100% of Xeikon's shares; the process, still ongoing, will be unaffected by the exit.

Company
Founded in 1988, Xeikon provides imaging and printing services to packagers and commercial printers.

Headquartered in Eede, the business designs web-fed colour presses under its namesake brand and manufactures platemakers for the printers and flexographic businesses via the basysPrint and ThermoFlexX units, respectively.

People
Wim Maes is currently CEO at Xeikon.

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