Good news for Allimand, which has been under safeguard procedure since last August. The Commercial Court of Grenoble has validated the takeover of the manufacturer of complete paper and cardboard production lines and machines by the French investment fund Arcole. With this takeover, all the jobs are kept.
Based in Rives, France, Allimand has a subsidiary in China and a pilot line in the United States. It has 150 employees and sales of approximately 40 million euros.
The new owner, Arcole, which specializes in the acquisition of companies in difficulty, has bought the entire capital of the manufacturer, which was founded in 1850, and is providing 10 million euros in cash as well as 3.3 million euros in bank financing. The investment fund also ensures " a significant deleveraging of the company" according to Osborne Clarke, the firm that advised him on this operation.
The investor thus offers Allimand "a new financial basis allowing it to modernize its industrial tool as well as its management tools" says the buyer.
"We were very quickly convinced that Allimand has an unrivalled know-how and technical expertise in the market of high value-added aerosol fibrous materials and that the group is driven by an expert and passionate team" said Alexandre Bachelier of Arcole. Arcole is counting on the strong growth of the high value-added fibrous materials market due to the development of e-commerce and new environmental standards.
And following the retirement of Franck Rettmeyer, who was part of the founding family, a new general manager, Patrick Gamet, was appointed at the end of April. He says he wants to "conquering market share" and "build new partnerships with the big names in the industry" .
