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Advent International divests Axtone

Posted Mon, 11/08/2008 - 00:00

Advent International sold Axtone S.A., Europe’s largest rail freight buffer manufacturer, to IK Investment Partners.

Axtone S.A. (www.axtone.eu)
The Axtone Group is a manufacturer of buffers and draw-gear devises for all types of rail vehicles. The Group manufacturers its products in five locations: Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia and China.

In January 2006, Advent acquired Kamax, which was then a mid-sized Polish business. At that time the company was a Polish-based market leader in rail wagon buffer, coupling and shock absorber manufacturing and maintenance, with an excellent engineering base and strong presence in Russia.

Simultaneously Advent purchased Keystone Bahntechnik, the German market leader in rail wagon buffers, crash systems and coupling devices, supplying OEMs across Europe and the Middle East. Both businesses were instantly integrated. The combined group, renamed Axtone, created Europe’s biggest company in the sector, headquartered in Kanczuga, Poland.

In 2006, the Group’s revenue was € 49 million and in 2008, this is expected to reach more than € 70 million.

IK Investment Partners (www.ikinvest.com)
IK Investment Partners, is a European private equity firm, having raised a total of € 5.7 billion, including € 1.7 billion in the latest fund IK2007.

Since 1989, IK has acquired 67 European companies. The current portfolio encompasses 20 companies with a total turnover close to € 7 billion. IK invests mainly in mid-sized companies with strong cash flow and profit improvement potential, operating in mature industries with fundamental underlying growth.

Advent International (www.adventinternational.com)
Founded in 1984, Advent International is one of the world’s leading global buyout firms, with buyout offices in 15 countries on four continents. Since inception, Advent has raised USD 24 billion in private equity capital and completed more than 200 buyout and private equity transactions valued at over USD 36 billion in 35 countries.

Advent International has been investing across Central & Eastern Europe since 1994 and has local offices in Warsaw, Prague, Bucharest and Kiev. In April 2008, the firm announced the closing of its fourth fund for the region, ACEE IV, at € 1 billion.