This values Punch Graphix at €133m. NPM is currently in the process of due diligence and in the event it acquires the capital it will be obliged to put forward a mandatory public offer to acquire the remainder of the share capital that is in the public domain. It is understood that NPM Capital hopes to complete the process to acquire the capital from Punch International before the start of Ipex in mid May. It is understood the bid has come about due to the poor performance of Punch International’s companies in the automotive industry where Punch International has been concentrating its operations in recent years.
NPM Capital is an independent investment company that invests in medium sized companies (with a shareholders’ equity of between €50 and €500m) in the Benelux region. It is a company with more than 60 years experience in growth capital and buy-outs and has made 632 investments since 1948. It currently has 33 equity investments and the average duration of its investments is for 11 years. NPM is a member company of SVH Holdings, a group with an annual turnover in excess of €11bn and with more than 38,000 employees. NPM is the market leader in the Dutch Midcap investment market.
The benefit for Xeikon and Basys Print, assuming the acquisition goes through, will be a stable ownership with access to funds for ongoing product development. The two companies have had a somewhat unstable structure for many years since the acquisition of Xeikon in 2002 following the company going into bankruptcy. Despite this both Xeikon and Basys Print have successfully introduced a number of competitive products into the digital printing and CtP markets.
Xeikon is now concentrating its activities into two areas of the digital printing market. The first of these is document printing, where its product range headed by the Xeikon 8000 press has established a strong position in the market. The second is industrial printing in the labels and packaging area. Here the company’s products headed up by the Xeikon 3300 have established a strong market position.
Xeikon differs from all other electrophotographic (toner) digital printing vendors in that it only offers continuous feed presses. These offer benefits of fitting into continuous feed document printing workflows, as well as being able to print larger formats, particularly in terms of document length, than other presses in the market. It is also one of the few digital printing systems to support the IPDS workflows of the transactional printing markets. At Ipex it will add support for fifth color working in IPDS.
At Ipex Xeikon while concentrate on these two markets. It will offer one completely new press, the Xeikon 3500, and it will also show enhancements to its Xeikon 8000 press. The Xeikon 3500 is the new top of the line product for industrial printing. The other products in this line are the Xeikon 3000 and 3300. These three presses, unlike the other Xeikon presses, only print on one side of the substrate.
The Xeikon 3000 and 3300 are narrow web presses with a maximum 330 mm (13 ins) web width. The Xeikon 3300 has a running speed of 19.2 meters/min (63 ft/min). The new Xeikon 3500 is built on the technology of the Xeikon 8000 with the same maximum web width of 512 mm (20.15 ins) but with a running speed of 19.2 meters/min. It has a five-color imaging engine allowing for printing of CMYK plus a white or spot color, as with the Xeikon 3000 and 3300.
Xeikon claim that the new Xeikon 3500 is the highest performance label press in the market. (In this they are not taking into account some new inkjet label presses due to come to market at Ipex). I was concerned that this claim may be incorrect since the major competitor to the Xeikon 3500 has to be seen as the HP Indigo 6000 that has a 330 mm web width and in four-color mode has a running speed of 27 meters/min, and in five-color mode of 21.6 meters/min.
Xeikon’s assessment of the situation, based upon discussions with label printers and assessing the potential throughput of the Xeikon 3500 press with its wider measure, is potentially 28 per cent more productive in four-colors; potentially 60 per cent more productive in five colors and potentially 90 per cent more productive in four colors plus white. (This latter figure is based upon their research that shows the HP Indigo press needs to print two passes to lay down a white background).
These figures are all based upon using the full 512 mm width of the substrate. In situations where the labels are to be printed on the normal 330 mm substrates to link up with existing dye cutting and finishing systems, then Xeikon would suggest the Xeikon 3300 press is more suitable. They perceive the new Xeikon 3500 will be purchased to run alongside an existing Xeikon, or other digital label press to increase productivity and open up new areas of applications. This is particularly the case for printing of food labels and packaging.
The Xeikon 8000 is being upgraded to run at the speed of 19-meters/min that gives a speed of 260 A4 (Letter) images per minute. The Xeikon 8000 shares the same imaging technology as the Xeikon 3500, this being a full width LED array with a resolution of 1,200 dpi by four gray levels. (To my understanding this is the highest quality of any LED-imaging engine in the market). To obtain this speed the Xeikon 8000 must use the new Xeikon QA-P toner (see below).
I have always been impressed with the current Xeikon press range that started with the Xeikon 5000. I did however have a concern about the market for the 8000 presses in the document printing market with the arrival of much faster continuous feed color inkjet products. In investigating this however I have found that the Xeikon presses are being chosen by many of the major inkjet press users to complement their inkjet presses.
In France DataOne, a major Kodak Versamark user, has been running Xeikon presses since 1999 and is currently upgrading its two Xeikon 6000s to the latest Xeikon 8000s. Rotomail in Italy, another major Kodak Versamark user also uses Xeikon presses. The same situation applies in a number of printers in the USA such as Strategic Content Imaging. The rationale for this is the Xeikon presses share the same reel to reel finishing operations as the inkjet presses, and are more suited for short runs. They also produce much higher quality output and are used for better quality work at premium prices.
The other major announcement at Ipex is two new toners for the Xeikon presses. These are designed for specific types of application. Xeikon has been a market leader in toner developments and is one of the largest toner producers in Europe. The first new toner is QA-P (Productivity) toner. This is designed for the Xeikon 8000 and gives more speed, a greater color gamut, is more ecological through changes in ingredients and the carrier, and requires a lower fusing temperature.
The second new toner is QA-I (Industrial). This is a toner with food approval and can be used in packaging of dry foods. It is more light fast, has higher printing performance and is more ecological. This toner is dedicated for labels and packaging. Using this with the Xeikon 3xxx presses Xeikon claim is the only digital print technology that can offer a food-approved ink system in comparison to UV-inkjet and liquid toner in terms of set-off, food contact with dry food and functional barriers like paper or PET-foil.
This coming Ipex looks to be very significant for Xeikon and Basys Print with the anticipated new financial structure most probably being agreed by that time.
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