DGAP-News

GESCO acquires leading strip steel processor PGW

DGAP-News: Gesco AG / Key word(s): Takeover/Takeover
GESCO acquires leading strip steel processor PGW

21.12.2016 / 13:45
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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Wuppertal, 21 December 2016 - As part of a succession planning process,
GESCO AG has acquired the Pickhardt & Gerlach Group (PGW), a leading strip
steel processor based in Finnentrop. The company was sold by the
entrepreneur family Hekhorn, who acquired PGW in 1990 and has significantly
expanded its business operations since. The transaction is still awaiting
approval by antitrust authorities.

PGW processes cold rolled strip steel using highly automated production
systems and distributes its products in the form of nickel-, copper-,
brass- or zinc-plated strip steel in various standards of quality and
dimensions in accordance with customer requirements. As a leading processor
of strip steel, the company has a broad and well-established customer basis
in the electronics, automotive, decoration, sporting equipment and office
supplies sectors. The company, founded in 1902, generates sales of roughly
EUR 30 million, two-thirds of which are attributed to activities abroad.

Long-time managing partner Michael F. Hekhorn will play an advisory role
for the company during a transitional period; managing director of
technology Dr Paul Braun and the heads of domestic sales/export Armin
Wieland and Dirk Limberg will continue to work for PGW and ensure
management continuity. "Sustainable business management was a top priority
for my family and me in our search for a successor for our family
business," said Michael F. Hekhorn. "The interests of our workforce were
particularly important to us in this regard. We opted for GESCO because we
were impressed by the entrepreneurial, long-term approach. We consider our
lifetime achievement to be in very safe hands under its new ownership."

"Mr Hekhorn has moulded PGW into a flagship manufacturer in this particular
sector over a number of decades," said Dr Eric Bernhard, Chairman of the
Executive Board of GESCO AG. PGW is a real 'hidden champion' in the
resource technology sector and couldn't be a better fit to our new
portfolio strategy. We have taken on this company with a long-term mindset,
in line with the GESCO philosophy, and will foster its development moving
forward."

PGW's special coating solutions with their precision tolerances are the
basis for the long life and high-tech appearance of the end products
supplied by PGW's customers, such as electronic circuit breakers, file
folders and windscreen wipers.

GESCO AG is an industrial group with market and technology leaders in the
investment goods industry focusing on production process technology,
resource technology, health and infrastructure technology and mobility
technology. As a stock listed company on the Prime Standard, GESCO AG
offers private and institutional investors access to a portfolio of leading
small and medium-sized industrial German companies, so-called hidden
champions of Germany's Mittelstand.

Investor Relations - Oliver Vollbrecht
Tel. [phone] - Fax [phone]
Email: [e-mail] - Internet: www.gesco.de


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21.12.2016 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a
service of EQS Group AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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Language: English
Company: Gesco AG
Johannisberg 7
42103 Wuppertal
Germany
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Internet: www.gesco.de
ISIN: DE000A1K0201
WKN: A1K020
Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated
Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover,
Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange



End of News DGAP News Service
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532315 21.12.2016