14 December 2009, Winterthur - Rieter Holding Ltd,. Of Switzerland
has signed a contract with the international technology group Andritz, based in
Graz, Austria, for the sale of the French company Rieter Perfojet S.A.S, a
wholly owned subsidiary of the Rieter Group. This divestment is being made in
the context of focusing on core activities in the Textile Division of Rieter.
Located in Montbonnot, France, Rieter Perfojet is engaged in
the development and manufacture of machinery and systems for producing
nonwovens and has 50 employees generating sales of around 40 million CHF. The
company’s products and technologies, marketed under the JetLace and Spunjet
brand names, are well known and are in use worldwide for the hydroentanglement
of nonwoven fabrics.
As a consequence of the current economic crisis Rieter has
intensified its efforts to concentrate its resources in its Textile Division on
its core competencies in the field of spinning machinery for short staple fibres,
together with technology components and service offerings. The parties have
agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
Completion of the transaction is subject to the consent of
the anti-trust authorities and is expected at the beginning of 2010. Andritz is
a publicly listed, international technology group with more than 13,000
employees and generated sales of 3.6 billion Euros in 2008. The Andritz Group
already operates in the nonwovens business through its subsidiary Andritz
Küsters GmbH in Krefeld, Germany. With its global presence and its systems
engineering know-how the new owner is therefore ideally equipped to ensure the
sustained business development of Rieter Perfojet, says Rieter.
The Rieter Group operates internationally, developing and
producing sophisticated system solutions for the textile and automotive industries.
In the first half of the 2009 financial year Rieter generated sales of 900
million CHF with 12,500 employees worldwide. The Textile Systems Division
accounted for 250 million CHF and the Automotive Systems Division for 650
million CHF of total sales.
