GERMANY – KKR and Goldman Sachs to bolster KION with EUR 100m

This is part of a deal with the company's lenders to adjust the terms of the debt and reset the covenant. According the reports, the funding is provided as a loan under the same terms as the company's senior debt.

KION has seen the market volumes for forklift trucks drop by 50% compared to 2008, leaving the company struggling to repay its EUR 2.3bn debt, which is being held by more than 200 lenders.

KKR and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners acquired KION from Linde Group in late 2006 for EUR 4bn. The deal represents the largest leveraged in Germany to date.

Headquartered in Wiesbaden, KION Group was established in September 2006, when Linde AG merged with BOC Group Plc following its £8bn acquisition of the company to become Linde Group, and subsequently divested its forklift truck division, including the three brands Linde, STILL and OM which made up the KION Group. In January this year, the KKR and Goldman Sachs-backed KION integrated a forth brand into the group, Chinese sector rival Baoili, making KION the largest the manufacturer of forklift trucks in China.

The group employs some 21,000 people and generated revenues of approximately EUR 4.55bn in 2008 with an EBITDA of EUR 704m. Last year, the group had a global market share of 17%.

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• Topics
• Expansion
• DACH