PHI Industrial buys part of Pitney Bowes’ European business
The restructuring fund PHI Industrial acquires the American company’s business in Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Spain and Portugal, as well as the German firm Intimus.
A very Catalan investment portfolio.
PHI Industrial is looking for new business opportunities, after an investment cycle focused on Catalonia. The fund is the owner of the steel bar producer Capresa, the aluminum parts manufacturer Covit, the technology company Atrian, the packaging manufacturer Abelan and the air conditioning equipment manufacturer for the industrial sector Hitecsa. This last company has seen its business reinforced with the assets of the Catalan company Adisa, which builds boilers and stoves, and the French company Wesper, specialized in air conditioning.
New investment by PHI Industrial at the European level. The venture capital fund, specialized in restructuring, has closed a two-party operation to create a company that specializes in both data destruction and services linked to messaging. The firm has acquired the German company Intimus and six European subsidiaries of the American multinational Pitney Bowes. The total amount of the operation has not been disclosed, although Escalade –previous owner of Intimus– informed the market that he had collected 750,000 euros for his German subsidiary, in addition to transferring debt.
Jordi Bricio, partner at PHI Industrial, explains that “Pitney Bowes’ commitment to Europe remains the same,” but that now “they are converting a direct sales channel into an exclusive indirect one.” The acquired subsidiaries are those in Spain, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria, with a staff of 180 people. Intimus International, which will give its name to the new company, has one hundred employees and subsidiaries in the US and China.
In total, the group will employ 280 people and will have a turnover of close to 50 million euros. The administrative headquarters will be installed in Esplugues de Llobregat and Javier Ortiz, until now chief executive of Fagor Confort, has been appointed as the new general director. The operational headquarters, however, will remain in Markdorf, a city located in the Baden-Württemberg region and very close to the border with Switzerland. There, Intimus has a factory and an R&D center in the field of security and data destruction.
PHI Industrial has chosen the current general director of Fagor Confort to lead the new company.
After this operation, the new company will specialize above all in data destruction machines, both for individuals and for industry. It will also offer transaction management software, as well as mailing and high-production products for mail flows, such as inserters, franking machines, folders and sealers, inherited from Pitney Bowes.
Intimus will employ 280 people and will have sales of 50 million euros per year.
European vision
It is the third operation that PHI Industrial has closed since in July it reinforced the business of its subsidiary Hitecsa with the purchase of a Catalan company, Adisa, and another from France, Wesper. At the end of September, it announced the acquisition of an old Henkel plant in Sant Adrià del Besòs to reinforce its project with La Antigua Lavandera, which started in Seville with the purchase of another bleach and detergent factory from Henkel.
“We have been very active and we will continue to be very active in the coming months with a more European than national focus,” says Bricio, who leads the investment firm together with Alexander Witt. Until now, PHI Industrial’s restructuring operations had been concentrated especially in Catalonia.