International legal practice Norton Rose advised LOI Thermprocess GmbH, a company of the Italian Tenova Group, on the acquisition of Metall Technologie Holding Group (MTH) from European Capital S.A. SICAR. The purchase price is confidential. The acquisition is subject to usual conditions precedent including approval by the relevant antitrust authorities.
MTH is headquartered in Menden, Germany, and is a leading provider of industrial heat treatment technology solutions, both for vacuum and atmospheric furnaces, in the aerospace, machine tooling and automotive industries, and has developed well-established industrial competences with focus on energy efficiency and high-performance. The group consists of the companies Schmetz, Mahler and IVA (Germany), B.M.I. (France) and HUISEN-MTH (China). MTH currently employs 320 people worldwide, 150 of which are based in Germany, 120 in China and 50 in France, and has an annual turnover of around EUR 65million.
Tenova Group is a global supplier of advanced technologies, products and services for the iron &steel and mining & minerals industries. It has 4,800 employees in 26 countries and has an annual turnover of USD2 billion. With the acquisition of MTH, Tenova reinforces its leading position in the heat treatment furnace industry . Tenova will also further expand its footprint in the automotive and aerospace markets while ensuring continuous customer effectiveness.
Tenova is part of the Techint Group which comprises Tenaris, Ternium, Techint E&C, Tenova, Techpetrol and Humanitas. Techint Group operates worldwide with an aggregate turnover of USD25 billion and employs over 59,000 people.
Uwe Eppler, lead partner, Norton Rose (Hamburg):
“I am very pleased to have advised Tenova on its third major transaction in Germany after the acquisition of LOI Thermprocess GmbH in 2006 and TAKRAF GmbH in 2007. Tenova as a specialist for mining and metals complements our global client portfolio in the field of infrastructure, mining and commodities, a key industry area of Norton Rose internationally. Besides our teams in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and Brussels, we involved further colleagues from our international offices, including teams from France and China.”
The following Norton Rose team was involved in the transaction:
Partners: Dr. Uwe Eppler (lead partner, corporate/tax, Hamburg), Dr. Klaus von Gierke (corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Dr. Frank Weberndörfer (employment, Hamburg), Christian Filippitsch (antitrust, Brussels), Dr. Flemming Moos (IT/IP, Hamburg).
Associates/Of Counsel: Katharina von der Heyde, Frank Volpers, Julia Forkel (all corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Alexander von Reuss, Dr. Brigitte Hidding (both tax, Hamburg), Wiebke Horst, Dr. Peter Volkmann (both employment, Hamburg), Dr. Andrea Spellerberg, Dr. Rüdiger Hansel (both banking, Munich), Dr. Ulrike Bernert-Auerbach, Dr. Andrej Latinovic (both real estate, Frankfurt), Max Seuster (antitrust, Brussels).
Furthermore, Norton Rose teams from Paris, Warsaw, Hong Kong and Shanghai were involved.
Background information: Hamburg tax partner Uwe Eppler has advised Tenova since 2006 when Tenova first entered the German market with the acquisition of LOI Thermprocess GmbH. He subsequently advised Tenova in 2007 on the acquisition of Leipzig based TAKRAF GmbH. This is the first time Uwe Eppler advises Tenova on a major M&A transaction after he joined Norton Rose in 2011.
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