Robbins & Myers to sell Romaco to private equity

Published: 31-Mar-2011

Deutsche Beteiligungs AG will expand the business organically and through acquisitions


US engineering company Robbins & Myers has agreed to sell its Romaco businesses to a group of funds led by Frankfurt, Germany based private equity firm Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) for approximately €65m.

Romaco is a leading global supplier of processing and packaging equipment for the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food and chemical industries.

Headquartered in Karlsruhe (Germany), the company operates from four European locations and has seven brands spanning multiple industries: the Bosspak, Noack and Siebler product lines are located in Karlsruhe, while the packaging brands Macofar, Promatic and Unipac are manufactured in Bologna (Italy). The Processing sector, represented by FrymaKoruma, is located at two sites in Neuenburg (Germany) and Rheinfelden (Switzerland).

‘Romaco creates an excellent opportunity for us to invest in one of the most attractive and strongly growing segments in Europe’s mechanical engineering sector,’ said Rolf Scheffells, a member of DBAG’s board. ‘In partnering with Romaco’s management, we aim to take a major step forward in the group’s internationalisation, based on its benchmark technologies.’

DBAG said it would focus on expanding Romaco’s service business, strengthening its sales network and transferring process knowledge and skills to other applications, such as for the cosmetics industry.

Growth will largely be organic, but could also come from acquisitions, DBAG said.

Dayton, Ohio-based Robbins & Myers has owned Romaco since 2001, turning it into a more focused engineering business, developing solutions for various forms of drug packaging and delivery systems and complex processing applications.

‘The sale of Romaco supports our strategy of becoming more focused on core Robbins & Myers’ technologies in fluid management and process control,’ said Peter Wallace, president and ceo of Robbins & Myers.

‘We are pleased that we have found an investment group that we believe understands the value proposition and engineering strength of the Romaco portfolio of products.’

Romaco’s products include primary and secondary packaging, sterile liquid and powder filling, process technology and wet grinding.

The deal is conditional upon the approval of the German anti-trust authorities and should be completed by the end of April.

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