KBA has contacted the manroland administrator overseeing manroland’s insolvency in Germany, expressing interest in the insolvent press giant.
KBA CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann told German daily Handelsblatt, “We stated our interest to the insolvency administrator,” adding that there have been no formal negotiations yet.
Bolza-Schünemann also said he that even without manroland he expects KBA to increase revenues and earnings in 2012, thanks in part to the company’s niche markets such as packaging and security printing.
Meanwhile the Shanghai Electric Company (SEC) is looking at buying manroland’s sheetfed printing division. Many industry analysts believe SEC has a long term plan to become the world’s biggest offset press manufacturer.
SEC is the company that in recent years bought one of manroland’s main web rivals Goss International, along with sheetfed press manufacturer Akiyama. Both Goss, which was US owned, and Japanese owned Akiyama spent several years in bankruptcy protection before SEC bought them.
Analysts believe the manroland sheetfed division would be harder to sell than its webfed side, with the latter holding number one spot in the market but sheetfed some distance down the ladder from the number two spot it occupied for 30 years until the turn of the century.
However SEC is reportedly unwilling to take on any of the ‘legacy’ commitments of manroland’s sheetfed business, which is based in Offenbach just outside Frankfurt, legacy being a euphemism for workers’ pensions and entitlements. It is also unwilling to commit to maintaining job numbers in Germany.
The manroland administrator is on record as stating that the company is almost certain to be broken up for sale, with webfed and sheetfed set to part.
The administrator is also touting a merger between the three German press giants – Heidelberg, KBA and manroland – as a possible solution to the plunging order crisis which has afflicted them all, although the other two are unlikely to countenance such a move.
At present manroland is continuing to trade, with the labour union paying the wages of most its 5000 German employees. The UK sales and service arm is also in administration. However manroland Australasia is according to its managing director Steve Dunwell ‘in good shape’. He says, “Spare parts are flowing. The UK arm is in administration mainly to make sure it can continue to operate through this period, but it is not something we are planning. I do expect a new investor to come in for the German business before too long, although I have no information on who the administrator is talking to.”
Dunwell also expressed his thanks to the local print community, he says, “Our customers have been tremendously supportive, they understand our situation.”
Representatives from IPMG and Hannanprint are in Germany seeking clarification on the status of their multimillion dollar orders for their new 96pp heatset Lithoman presses, placed before manroland announced it was insolvent. The Hannanprint press is due in the first quarter next year, with PMP’s due in the middle of the year.
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