Kortrijk, Belgium, 19 July 2007. Barco nv today announces the signing of an agreement for the acquisition of its division BarcoVision by Itema Group from Bergamo, Italy, pending the approval of antitrust authorities. The value of the transaction is 72 million euro. The precise impact on Barco’s results and further information will be given at the closing of the acquisition, which is expected before end 2007.
All the division’s operations are part of the acquisition agreement. They involve the operations of BarcoVision in Belgium, Gebrüder Loepfe AG in Switzerland and Italy, BarcoVision Ltd in the United Kingdom, Barco Sedo GmbH in Germany and BarcoVision LLC in the USA. The Belgian manufacturing activities will be gradually transferred to other manufacturing plants of the Itema organization. As a result of this about 40 employees, currently involved with operations in Belgium, will move to other divisions of Barco, supporting their continued growth.
The division BarcoVision, active in the markets of textile and manufacturing execution systems, realized sales of euro 55.5 million in 2006 and an EBIT margin of 11.3%. The division counted 350 employees at the end of 2006.
For this transaction Barco was advised by ING Corporate Finance and law firm Baker & McKenzie.
