27 May 2016 Rutland Backs Walstead To Acquire Leykem Let’s Print in €175m Deal
Rutland Partners announces that it has agreed to make a £33.0 million investment into UK based Walstead Group to help facilitate its acquisition of Let’s Print Holding AG (“LEYKAM Let’s Print). The overall transaction has an enterprise value of EUR €175 million.
Walstead, with revenues of EUR €265 million and 1,300 employees, is a leading commercial printing group with operations in the UK and Spain. Walstead operates under the Wyndeham brand in the UK, and Rotocobrhi and Eurohueco in Spain.
With revenues of EUR €225 million and 730 employees, LEYKAM Let’s Print is a leading commercial printing group in Central and Eastern Europe. The business operates from two locations in Austria, and one each in Slovenia and Czech Republic. 70% of its revenues are generated from the production of promotional flyers and leaflets for retail and commercial customers in Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and Switzerland.
The combined Walstead and LEYKAM Let’s Print group will have pro-forma annual revenues of EUR €490 million and employ over 2,000 staff at 11 production facilities in five countries. Walstead will operate 37 web offset and four gravure printing presses supported by 38 perfect binding and stitching lines, which together will process over 565,000 tonnes of paper annually and specialise in the production of promotional flyers and leaflets, catalogues, magazines and newspaper supplements. Mark Scanlon and Paul Utting will continue to lead the enlarged Walstead Group as chairman and CEO, respectively.
Completion is subject to Austrian and German merger control approval, which is expected to take up to four weeks.
Rutland focuses on special situations where there is complexity and an opportunity to deliver positive change. Walstead’s acquisition of LEYKAM Let’s Print represents an exciting scale opportunity for Rutland to support an experienced management team to maximise the potential of the enlarged group.
Walstead’s acquisition of LEYKAM Let’s Print is the third investment from Rutland Fund III. The transaction was led on behalf of Rutland by Oliver Jones, Michael Reynolds and Jason Birt, with support from Nick Morrill.
Oliver Jones, partner at Rutland, said: “We are delighted to be supporting Walstead in this transformational deal. Building on a strong track record, the enlarged group will have the scale and geographic reach to deliver increased pan-European sales and improved operational efficiency. We look forward to working with the Walstead team to maximise the potential of the enlarged group and to support their plans for further growth.”
Mark Scanlon, chairman of Walstead, said: “LEYKAM Let’s Print is an exceptionally well-managed, profitable and successful business which has recently received high levels of investment. It will act as our hub for further expansion into Central and Eastern Europe. This was a complex transaction and we chose Rutland because of their experience of these situations and their strong appetite to back the Walstead business. We also see plenty of further potential opportunities to progress our strategy in Europe and I do not believe any other European print group has the ambition or ability to do what we are doing.”