Bairds brush sale

Hahl, a German maker of monofilaments for synthetic brushes, bristles and canvas, has been acquired by Lenzing Plastics after being sold by UK mid-market house Baird Capital Partners Europe for an undisclosed sum.

The sale marks the end of an investment that began in April 2003 when Baird backed the MBO from its US-based parent company. Its products are used in the manufacture of industrial brushes and filtration, abrasive agents in industrial smoothing processes, and in domestic products such as toothbrushes.

Last year the company generated an annual turnover of approximately €35m, and employs 240 staff with manufacturing operations in Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as sales operations in the UK.

Simon Havers, managing director of Baird, said: “Hahl has been a successful investment with the company achieving consistent growth over the last four years. Our investment enabled the company to capitalise on significant market opportunities as well as achieving a major group reorganisation to create two operating divisions with lower production costs and improved product efficiency. We believe the company should go on to achieve further growth as part of Lenzing.”

The sale of Hahl comes just over two months after Baird’s previous exit, that of Traffic Support Limited, a parking enforcement solutions company, which it sold to Mouchel Parkman for £21.5m, giving a 3.5x return on Baird’s investment.

Baird invests in three sectors: manufactured products, businesses services and healthcare. Following the Hahl disposal, the firm has six investments remaining in the manufactured products portfolio: Amann, a manufacturer of aluminium die cast products, Berkenhoff, a maker of non-ferrous fine wire solutions, Cooling Power, a manufacturer of heat exchangers, Paddock, manufacturer of multipoint locks, Spheros, manufacturer of components of heating sytems for buses, and SSB, a special and high performance drives.