AL-KO Vehicle Technology, a company founded in 1931 and a leading European producer of trailer and caravan components, part of the DexKo Global group, controlled by Brookfield Asset Management, has announced the acquisition of 100% of the Fluid Press Group, an Italian group active in the design, production and distribution of integrated valves and blocks, with a wide and diversified offer that includes both standardized and tailor-made solutions for multiple applications including agricultural machinery, lifting and transport machinery, and other industrial vehicles (see here the press release).
Assisting the sellers in the transaction were PwC’s m & a team as exclusive lead financial advisor and the PwC TLS Avvocati e Accountisti team and Studio Ferrarini for tax matters. AL-KO VT, on the other hand, was supported on a legal level by the Chiomenti firm.
Fluid-Press, founded in 1971 by the Alvo, Aldo and Attilio Tagliavento brothers and based in Albinea (Reggio Emilia), develops and produces hydraulic valves and manifold blocks for agricultural machinery, industrial equipment, cranes, aerial platforms and earth-moving machinery. Fluid-Press closed the 2020 financial statements with 11.8 million euros in revenues, 2.4 millions in ebitda and net liquidity for 6.3 millions (see the Leanus report here, after registering for free).
Aldo Tagliavento, chairman of Fluid-Press, who will continue to serve the company as ceo, commented: “We are proud to be part of DexKo, a global industrial group that will strengthen Fluid-Press’s worldwide presence. I am confident that together with Safim will achieve great results”. Actually Fluid-Press will work closely with Safim Brakes, a Modena-based company, a leading manufacturer of highly engineered hydraulic braking system components used in a range of off-road equipment applications and is part of DexKo and AL-KO Vehicle Technology since 2019, when it was sold by the Ambienta II private equity fund (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
Giovanni Pedrinoni, ceo of Safim, explained: “We will work closely together, we will exploit the synergies and therefore we will significantly expand our clientele and geographic reach, and I look forward to exploiting our joint business opportunities.”
Fred Bentley, managing director of DexKo, commented: “The family business, which has been successfully run for decades, produces high quality products and components. This acquisition allows DexKo to continue growing in the hydraulics sector and to further expand our product offering in this segment. We are delighted to welcome the Fluid-Press team to DexKo and help them build on the firm foundation of the company”.
Harald Hiller, chairman and ceo of AL-KO, added: “We are dealing with complementary customer portfolios (OEM and distribution), which will allow us to further grow in their respective customer segments with both Safim and Fluid-Press products. which we can now sell through the distribution channels of both companies and in untapped markets. We look forward to combining the strengths of the Fluid-Press team with those of DexKo to further grow the hydraulics business”.
DexKo Global is a group with a turnover of approximately one billion dollars, born in 2015 from the integration between Dexter Axle, a leading developer and manufacturer of trailer axles, brakes and related components in North America, and AL-KO VT itself. A rapprochement that began in October 2014, when Dexter Axle took over the North American subsidiary AL-KO Axis, in turn the result of the merger that took place in 2011 between the companies AL-KO Kober USA and Axis Products. KPS Capital Partners had then acquired DexKo in 2017 from The Sterling Group which had retained a minority (see the press release at the time), while a year ago DexKo then passed under control of Brookfield Business Partners, part of Brookfield Asset Management, for approximately 3.4 billion dollars (see the press release at the time here).
With over 6,000 employees, 50 manufacturing facilities and 50 distribution centers around the world, under the control of KPS DexKo has completed 15 acquisitions, investing over 600 million dollars. Three acquisitions of DexKo were completed in Italy, in addition to multiple international operations: in 2018, CBE Group, which produces electrical components and wiring for the camper sector, was acquired; Safim, a leading manufacturer of highly engineered components for hydraulic braking systems based in Modena and founded in 1977, was taken over in 2019; while in 2020 DexKo brought the electronics specialist Nordelettronica to its perimeter.
