Buyout firms to bid on fire extinguisher maker Minimax

Target: Minimax

Price: $1.8 billion

Multiple: 10x EBITDA; 2x invested capital

Sponsor: IK Investment Partners

IK has sent out information on Minimax—a so called vendor due diligence report—and arranged management presentations for private equity groups such as The Blackstone Group, Cinven Ltd, Permira Advisers Ltd, CVC Capital Partners and Onex Corp, the people told sister news service Reuters.

It is hoping to attract tentative offers valuing the company at 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion), which would allow it to double the money it invested in the group, they added. Minimax, one of the world’s largest fire equipment suppliers, has roughly 1.1 billion euros in annual sales and EBITDA of about 130 million euros.

IK bought Minimax in 2006 from Investcorp for an undisclosed amount, financing the deal with 530 million euros in bank loans. At that point the company had revenues of less than 500 million euros a year, but it has since grown considerably, taking over U.S. rival Viking Group in 2009.

IK Investment, Blackstone and Permira declined to comment, while Cinven, CVC and Onex were not immediately available for comment. 

Arno Schuetze is a correspondent for Reuters in Frankfurt.