カテゴリー: Corporate

Kansai Paint Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Kita-ku, Osaka, President & CEO: MORI Kunishi, hereinafter referred to as “Kansai Paint”) is pleased to announce that through Kansai Helios Coatings GmbH (hereinafter referred to as “KANSAI HELIOS”), a consolidated subsidiary of Kansai Paint in Europe, Industrial Coatings business of WEILBURGER Coatings GmbH and WEILBURGER Asia Ltd. (Hong Kong) (hereinafter collectively referred to as “WEILBURGER”) will be acquired. The acquisition will be made by 100% share transfer of WEILBURGER held by GREBE Holding GmbH, and all the Industrial Coating business including sales and manufacturing sites of WEILBURGER in Europe, America, Asia and others will be included.

KANSAI HELIOS plans to conclude a share purchase agreement on February 9th, 2024.

　WEILBURGER is a long-established paint manufacturer that has been operating globally for more than 120 years since its founding in 1900, mainly in Europe. Consolidated sales in 2023 are expected to be around EUR 150 million.
With the acquisition of WEILBURGER, Kansai Paint Group will greatly enhance its position in the Industrial coatings market, introducing and expanding WEILBURGER’s unique technologies, such as non-stick coatings used in frying pans and irons, and heat-resistant paints used in stoves and fireplaces, and important business of railway coatings.
Among the acquisitions of WEILBURGER, the acquisition of WEILBURGER Asia Ltd. falls under the timely disclosure items (transfer of specified subsidiaries) stipulated by the Tokyo Stock Exchange, so we have also disclosed it as “Notice about acquisition of shares of WEILBURGER Asia Ltd.(Hong Kong), by Kansai Helios Coatings GmbH which is our consolidated subsidiary (in order to make it a consolidated subsidiary)“.

Under the 17th Medium-Term Management Plan, Kansai Paint Group is engaged in small- and medium-sized M&A mainly in Europe and India. To date, KANSAI HELIOS has acquired Wefa’s railway business assets (August 2022), CWS Group (February 2023), and Beckers railway business assets (May 2023).

Going forward, in addition to focusing on creating synergies through WEILBUGER’s participation into Kansai Paint Group, we will continue to implement the Group’s strategy of “Aggressive investment in growing markets” to achieve sustainable enhancement of corporate value.

On June 1, 2022, Kansai Paint Co., Ltd. (“Kansai Paint”) announced that Kansai Paint entered into an agreement to sale its Africa business to Akzo Nobel N.V. (“AkzoNobel”), a global leading coatings company under the Share Purchase Agreement (“Agreement”). However, we hereby announce that Kansai Paint and AkzoNobel today have terminated the Agreement.

With regard to the share transfer under the Agreement (“Transfer”), Kansai Paint has advanced the process for antitrust approval of the relevant authorities. However, the Competition Tribunal in South Africa, which is an important region for Kansai Paint’s African business, has issued an order prohibiting the Transfer. As the closing of the Transfer is subject to the antitrust approval of the relevant authorities, the parties have agreed to pursue different paths and have terminated the Agreement on November 29, 2023.

Kansai Paint will continue to operate its African business and aim to strengthen its competitiveness in the African market, improve customer satisfaction and continue to contribute to the development of the African society through the paint business. Kansai Paint will also remain committed to maximizing the enterprise value through enhancing governance over its Africa business and fully realizing group synergies.

The termination of the Transfer will have no impact on the Kansai Paint’s business results for this fiscal year and its growth investment and shareholder return.

KANSAI HELIOS, with its holding company in Austria, provides a wide range of coatings, including industrial coatings, throughout Europe, and beyond. KANSAI HELIOS owns two brands for railway coatings, Rembrandtin and Helios, and has achieved a solid market position in Europe. In addition, KANSAI HELIOS Wefa GmbH, which was established in Germany following the acquisition of the German coating manufacturer Westdeutsche Farben GmbH in August 2022, with its brand “Wefa” expands the KANSAI HELIOS railroad coatings range.
Beckers Group is the number one supplier of coil coatings and a leading supplier of industrial paint worldwide, founded in 1865, with production in 23 locations in 17 countries and sales in 60 countries.
By taking over the Beckers’ business, since which has a strong position and high technological capabilities in railway coatings in France and neighboring countries, we will be able to enter new markets such as France and further strengthen our competitiveness in the industrial field, including railway coatings, in Europe and worldwide.

Kansai Paint Group has set “aggressive investment in growing market” as one of the key principles in the 17th Medium-term Management Plan, which started in April 2022. We will expand overseas businesses by reinforcing our strengths, mainly in Europe and India, and promoting small- and medium-sized M&A within the ¥20 billion framework with the aim of having them complement each other mutually. In addition to this transaction, we announced the completion to acquire railway business assets of wefa in Germany in August 2022, and the completion to acquire of shares of a powder coating business company CWS Lackfabrik GmbH in Europe and USA in February 2023.

In order to promote our group strategy of “shifting to B to B business” and “strengthening focused businesses and fields such as India and Europe”, we will continue to pursue not only small and medium-sized M&A that will optimize our business portfolio, but also explore the possibility of large-sized M&A.

　The asset purchase agreement for the acquisition of the business assets was signed on December 9, 2022. KANSAI HELIOS will – after its completion of closing conditions – acquire all business assets of Beckers in the Railway Coatings segment, such as recipes and railway homologations, customer database (excluding customers from India and China). As a part of this transaction, KANSAI HELIOS will establish a new and at the same time its first subsidiary in France, KANSAI HELIOS France SAS, which will collaborate within the KANSAI HELIOS Group to conduct the railway coating business acquired from Beckers. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.　(KANSAI HELIOS :　December Financial Year Closing)

　Kansai Paint Group has set “aggressive investment in growth areas” as one of the key principles in the 17th Medium-term Management Plan, which started in April 2022. We will expand overseas businesses by reinforcing our strengths, mainly in Europe and India, and Promoting small- and medium-sized M&A within the ¥20 billion framework with the aim of having them complement each other mutually. This acquisition follows the August 2022 acquisition of Wefa and the November 30, 2022, acquisition of shares of a powder coating business company CWS Lackfabrik GmbH in Europe. In order to promote our group strategy of “shift to B to B business” and “strengthening focused businesses and fields such as India and Europe”, We will continue to pursue not only small and medium-sized M&A that will optimize our business portfolio, but also explore the possibility of large-sized M&A.