One Equity buys GKN subsidiary from Melrose

Melrose also announced the sale of a minority stake in French aerospace company Société Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques (Sabca) to Dassailt Belgique Aviation.

The combined proceeds of both sales are approximately £200m.
Melrose acquired GKN in an £8bn hostile takeover in March last year. The offer was rejected by the board but ultimately accepted by shareholders.

GKN hired Baird to sell Walterscheid last year and saw Cerberus Capital Management, One Equity Partners and OpenGate Capital in the final round, according to Unquote sister publication Mergermarket. The report said that the business was marketed based on EBITDA of €35-40m.

Company
Walterscheid supplies engineered power transmission products to off-highway and industrial equipment manufacturers, trading under Walterscheid. It serves markets including agriculture, construction, mining and industrials, and provides after-market services.

In 2016, GKN was divided into four divisions – automotive, powder metallurgy, aerospace and land systems, according to public filings. Until 2017, Walterscheid was part of the land systems division, which included all of GKN's activities across the agricultural, construction, mining and other industrial sectors such as renewable energy, material handling, industrial trucks and marine. GKN then dissolved the division and assigned Walterscheid to its OHP unit. In 2016, 88% of Walterscheid's sales originated in Europe and 11% in North America, as per the filings.

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