Pfleiderer AG sells its business center Poles & Towers

Dec 20, 2004. /Lesprom Network/. SDAX-listed Pfleiderer AG (ISIN DE0006764749) has sold its affiliate Pfleiderer Poles & Towers Co. KG to a group of financial investors connected with VTC Partners GmbH. The sale has legal effect as of December 1. The Supervisory Board of Pfleiderer AG approved the contract of sale. The take-over takes the form of a share deal, the precise details of which both sides have agreed to keep confidential. With this sale, Pfleiderer AG has disposed of its Business Center Poles & Towers as previously announced. In Spring 2004, the company’s American concrete and steel pole operations in the USA, Newmark Inc., was sold to Valmont Industries Inc., USA for USD 115 million. In fiscal 2004 the Business Center Poles & Towers is expected to generate sales of around EUR 80 million and employed 565 people. For Pfleiderer AG, the deals are of strategic importance as the income they generate will directly improve its equity base and strengthen the market positions of its Business Centers Engineered Wood and Infrastructure Technology. For Hans H. Overdiek, spokesman of Pfleiderer AG’s Board of Management, selling the entire Business Center Poles & Towers is a major step forward towards implementing the Group’s strategic aims announced at the beginning of the year. “By further reducing corporate indebtedness and strengthening our equity basis, we created an opportunity to strengthen the Pfleiderer Group’s competitive position and earnings power in its cores areas. Now we are concentrating our forces in the strategic development of our core businesses, driving expansion in growth markets and gaining new product segments.“ Regarding the Business Center Engineered Wood, for example, this is a reference to the expansion of production capacity through the construction of a new particleboard plant in Russia and a new MDF plant in Poland. During the latest takeover of the Nidda plant from the Hornitex Group, Overdiek announced that the Business Center Engineered Wood intended to expand activities in the profitable MDF product segment, either by further acquisitions, or by own investment in new production plants. Pfleiderer Poles & Towers GmbH & Co. KG produces poles, columns and towers made of concrete, steel and glass-fibre reinforced plastic for a wide range of applications. The company, one of the leading market participants in Europe, currently produces at three locations in Germany (Neumarkt, Regensburg, Dinkelsbьhl). Its diverse range of products and services include 3 meter high lighting poles, 50 meter high advertising gantries and 100 meter high towers for telecommunications. According to Fritz Fьckert, general manager of Pfleiderer Poles & Towers GmbH & Co. KG, “The takeover of Pfleiderer Poles & Towers GmbH & Co. KG by a group of financial investors connected with VTC means we have a found a strong financial partner who will support our growth strategy and promote the internationalisation of our business activities. Our management has set itself a clear aim: European market leadership. The fact that management has taken a participating share in the company’s equity shows just how serious we are.”