Langley Holdings PLC, the diverse UK-engineering group that stepped in to rescue the sheetfed division of Manroland AG four years ago, has recouped its investment in the press manufacturer – according to the group's latest accounts.
In his chairman's review, Tony Langley states, "Towards the end of 2015 the group's cash position had passed the level it would have been had the acquisition not taken place."
The company paid €85m for the business and assets of the sheetfed division in February 2012.
How is this possible? Manroland has been doing well these last four years, but not that well. The answer lies in the deal that Tony Langley did with administrator Werner Schneider back in February 2012.
Langley bought the entire assets of the division – property, plant, machinery, stock, work-in-progress, debtors – and the shares in the forty or so still-solvent subsidiaries around the world – for something like 35 cents on the dollar.
Then, as the new Manroland Sheetfed GmbH began trading, many of those heavily discounted assets began turning to cash: debts taken over were collected, stocks and work-in-progress turned into new debtors, and surplus property and plant sold off, as the business concentrated to a single location.
Add to that a modest trading profit each year and hey presto, the investment is recouped.
[Related: UK investor buys Manroland sheetfed arm]
All this time Langley didn't put a cent more into its Manroland division, the company has been standing on its own feet since the Langley deal, and has been investing millions of Euros into developing the next generation Roland 700 Evolution, which will be the centerpiece of the company’s drupa stand.
Langley had done his sums correctly and today both Manroland Sheetfed and its parent are evidently in rude financial health.
Although not a stellar performer compared with other divisions, the press builder contributed around 10 per cent towards Langley Holdings' pretax profit, pushing the group's result to €106.7m. Langley says he is ‘satisfied with the achievements in this division’.
He also says that Druck Chemie, the print chemicals producer acquired in November 2014, had ‘traded satisfactorily’ in its first full year as part of the group.
And what of the future? Will Langley cash out on his investment, now that the press builder has turned the corner? Unlikely. Langley has not sold any of the companies he has turned around in two decades. And neither does he need to, the group has no debt and reported cash of €330m at December 31 last year.
Langley himself is not exactly short either, he entered Forbes list of world billionaires at No. 1577 this year with an estimated personal fortune of US$1.3bn, and with two young sons already in the business, the dynasty looks set for the next generation.
It seems Langley, and Manroland Sheetfed, will be part of the print industry for a long time to come.
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