Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Limited (“FPA”) and De’ Longhi S.p.A. (De’ Longhi) announce today that FPA has agreed to acquire Elba S.p.A (“Elba”), the European cookware business of De’ Longhi S.p.A. The purchase price for the acquisition of Elba is €78 million (approximately NZ$158 million). Elba, based near Treviso, Italy, manufactures and distributes cookware products including freestanding cookers, built-in ovens and cooktops. It has a strong export focus to over 54 countries with a particular strength in the UK.
John Bongard, Managing Director and CEO of FPA said “We are delighted to have successfully completed the acquisition of Elba. Now that our US strategy is in place, the Elba acquisition provides us with the platform to achieve strategic growth in Europe. The acquisition will also provide further geographical diversification for us, balancing our exposures to the US, Australian and New Zealand markets”.
“Elba is a well run, flexible cookware facility that will provide us with products and customers to help grow the sales of Fisher & Paykel and De’ Longhi products in our key markets including Europe and the UK.” Elba will also introduce a range of Fisher & Paykel branded products in the Australasian market.
De’ Longhi CEO, Fabio De’ Longhi said “the divestment of Elba is in line with De’ Longhi’s strategy to focus and foster growth in its key product categories of heating, air conditioning, food preparation, cleaning and ironing. De’ Longhi will however continue to be the exclusive distributor of De’ Longhi branded cookers in the Australian, New Zealand and Italian markets.
John Bongard continues, “We are also excited by the prospect of developing a close working relationship with De’ Longhi and exploring mutually beneficial opportunities in the future”.
For the 12 months ending 31 December 2005, sales for Elba were €83.9m million (NZ$170 million).
Signing and completion of the transaction occurred today.
FPA was advised by Deutsche Bank AG and received accounting / tax and legal advice from Ernst & Young and Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton respectively.
De’ Longhi was advised by Cross Border Srl member of Global M&A and received legal advice from Studio Legale Abbatescianni and fiscal advice from Biscotti Novili.