Gerflor Has New Majority Shareholder
Lyon, FR, January 22, 2020-Gerflor has a new majority shareholder; Cobepa, an investment company owned by Belgium’s Spoelberch family, took majority ownership of the France-based resilient flooring firm for a few hundred million euros, reports L’Echo.
“The amount of the investment made by the Belgian holding company is not known, but the deal would value Gerflor between 1.6 and 1.7 billion euros (debts included). This amount corresponds to approximately ten times the gross operating surplus (EBITDA) of the French group, which amounts to some 150 million euros,” reports L’Echo.
“Cobepa is [tight-lipped] with comments about the deal, which has yet to be presented to Gerflor's works council (and to be approved by European authorities). In any case, it is certain that, for the Belgians, the cost of the deal amounts to at least a few hundred million euros.”
This is the first time the Belgian holding company has made an investment of this magnitude.
Gerflor produces resilient flooring for the sports, commercial and residential market.
The company had a reported one billion euros in revenue in 2019 and has 4,200 employees worldwide.
The American arm of the company, Gerflor USA, is headed by Benjamin Bachman.