Kiekert AG takes over the strategic investor

The listed automotive supplier Hebei Lingyun Industrial Group Corporation Ltd., Beijing, China, has reached a trade agreement with a group of investors to acquire the world market leader for car locking systems and is thus setting the tone for global growth. The sales activities around the Heiligenhauser automotive supplier Kiekert AG have thus come to a successful end.

After intensive negotiations with the Chinese automotive supplier Lingyun, Kiekert's current investors have agreed to acquire Kiekert AG. The formalization of the contracts and the review by the anti-trust authorities are pending in the coming months.

After a debt-to-equity swap in 2006, Kiekert AG is now owned by an owner consortium, consisting essentially of the two financial investors Blue Bay Asset Management and Silver Point Capital and the American investor Morgan Stanley. In 2007, a new management team came on board with the new owners.

Kiekert was consistently restructured in the following years and is now on a solid growth path with sustainable profitability. In the factory, the streamlining of the global production footprint with simultaneous flexibility and the expansion in Asia led to sustainable earnings contributions. In addition, a stringent product focus with substantial investments in development ensured a clear increase in orders even in the crisis years of 2009/2010. The group sold over 2011 million locking systems in 41, the largest production volume in the company's history. With sales of well over EUR 500 million, Kiekert is once again building on previous years of success.

The takeover of Kiekert creates a supplier company with sales of over one billion euros and with massive global growth potential. They want to significantly expand the locking systems business in Asia and are also planning to globalize Lingyun's core products to Europe and the NAFTA region.