Lyceum exits German plastics business

Coperion Group, a German plastics processor, has been sold by Lyceum Capital, a UK mid-market private equity formerly known as West Private Equity, to Deutsche Beteiligungs for approximately €300m.

Based in Stuttgart, Coperion is a provider of compounding systems, materials handling equipment and services for the plastics industry, but also has a growing presence in the food, pharmaceuticals and chemicals sectors. The company has operations in 27 countries across Europe, the US, Brazil, Russia, India, China and the Far East.

Lyceum was advised by UBS, Clifford Chance, PwC, LEK, MercerHR and URS. Deutsche Beteiligungs was advised by KPMG, Linklaters and Androschin & Partners.

West Private Equity, which became Lyceum Capital in 2006 after separating from cornerstone investor WestLB, acquired a majority stake in Coperion at the end of 2002, before taking 100 percent ownership last year.

Under Lyceum’s ownership, Coperion has grown EBITDA from a negative figure in 2003 on sales of €289m to more than €40m in 2006 on sales of approximately €450m. The senior management team was also strengthened with the recruitment of CEO Manfred Eiden, former president and COO of Kone Corporation, and Günter Bachmann, previously chairman of the executive board of Heraeus Tenovo.

The Lyceum team on this transaction were Philip Buscombe, David Harland and Andrew Aylwin. Advisers to Lyceum were UBS Investment Bank (corporate finance), Clifford Chance, (legal), PwC (accounting and tax due diligence), LEK (commercial due diligence), MercerHR (pensions due diligence) and URS (environmental due diligence). Advisers to DBAG were KPMG (corporate finance and financial due diligence), Linklaters (legal) and Androschin & Partner (commercial due diligence).