Hess AG has sold its shares in Hannover-based exterior lighting company Vulkan as it continues to restructure following insolvency proceedings.
The troubled German manufacturer which had 100 per cent of the shares in Vulkan, has sold them to strategic investor Nordeon, saving nearly 20 jobs.
The Vulkan business is known for developing high-quality, but economically-priced exterior luminaires. Nordeon is an internationally positioned company based in the Netherlands with sites in Germany and France. The company was founded in the course of a spin-off from Philips in October 2012 and is based less than 30 kilometres away from the previous Vulkan headquarters. Since its founding in October 2012, Nordeon has pursued ambitious growth targets in the outdoor lighting sector.
“Acquiring Vulkan enables Nordeon to reach these targets considerably earlier”, said Pierre van Lamsweerde, CEO of the Nordeon Group.
Hess’s temporary insolvency administrator, Dr Wolfgang Bilgery, of the partnership Grub Brugger & Partner in Stuttgart said: “We succeeded in securing all jobs with a prospect for Vulkan and its employees”.
The take-over of Vulkan by Nordeon happened in the course of a so-called asset deal. Both parties have agreed to keep the purchase price confidential. Dr Volker Grub, temporary insolvency administrator of Hess AG, said that he saw the sale of Vulkan GmbH as a positive step in the context of the further restructuring of the Hess Group: “Due to Vulkan’s focus, it belonged to the peripheral activities of the Hess Group, enabling us now to concentrate on the core activities and core competencies during the ongoing restructuring process.”
Hess said that it would continue to actively pursue buyers both for the Hess AG business and for the company’s additional subsidiaries.
