Cable sale nets Argos 10x return

French mid-market firm Argos Soditic has made a return in excess of 10x through the sale of Maillefer Extrusion, a Swiss cable machinery producer, to Alpha Groupe in a secondary buyout for an undisclosed amount.

Maillefer provides manufacturing solutions to the world’s wire, cable and tube and pipe manufacturing industries. It was acquired by Argos in 2001 from Nextrom, a Nokia-owned business. At that time it was a manufacturer but over the following years it was transformed into a fully out-sourced provider of services to the wire and cable industry.

Maillefer’s sales have grown from CHF100m in 2001 to CHF270m in 2007.

Guy Semmens, a partner at Argos Soditic in Geneva, who led the transaction, said: “Despite difficult market conditions from 2001-2004, the management team at Mailler stuck to the long term strategy of moving to a flexible, out-sourced model which would create value once the markets recovered. As a result Argos Soditic was able to work with management to implement a restructuring program that has transformed the company into the leading player in the wire and cable machinery market.”