HitecVision is pleased to announce the sale of Valco Group France SAS and the exit of all holdings from the Technor platform. Valco Group France, consisting of the two operating companies SNRI and VVS, has been sold to the European private equity group Argos Soditic.
This transaction marks the exit of the Technor platform (current legal name TecVal) in Fund IV. As is common for our capital light Product, Technology and Services companies, the platform exit has been achieved through a staged process involving several transactions, which made it possible to target specific buyers with the best strategic fit. In line with our feeder model, three out of the four exits after Technor went into the CashMax phase has been to industrial buyers.
Technor ASA was a conglomerate listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange at the time of acquisition in June 2006. Technor was organized in two business areas: ElectroTech Products and FlowTech Products. The ElectroTech business area had competence in electro-mechanics, instrumentation and electronics, in particular electric components for use in potentially explosive areas, so-called Ex-products. The business area consisted of the companies Technor, Haaland, Technor ISIS, Technor Atex and Protech Middle East (50%). The FlowTech business area had competence in materials and flow technology, primarily valves. The business area consisted of the companies ScanArmatur, SNRI, Westad Industri, Technor Malbranque and SNRI Services.
In addition to the existing Ex and Valve businesses it was decided to build up a subsea division. The subsea division was created through the acquisitions of Bennex, Poseidon and Altra Energy.
In 2008 the subsea division was sold from Technor to Subsea Technology Group (STG), a new platform company established in Fund IV
The remaining companies were organized in two business lines, Technor Ex AS and Valco Group AS. Technor Ex specialized in Ex products while the Valco companies provided valves for the marine and oil & gas industries, as well as other industrial sectors.
Technor Ex consisted of Safe Ex (Norway), Italsmea (Italy) and Atex (France), as well as sales offices in certain other countries. In 2010, the largest company in the Technor Group, Technor Safe Ex, was sold to an industrial buyer, Bartec (Germany), allowing management to focus on value creation in the remaining companies. The proceeds from the transaction were used to repay debt.
The valve business of Technor was organized under Valco Group. Valco Group had one operational company in Norway (Westad Industri AS) and three operational companies in France (Malbranque, SNRI SAS and Valco Valve Services SAS).
Since the companies in the Technor platform was moved into the CashMax phase a total of four exits have been made.
- Italsmea: sold to the French company Marechal Electric in May 2013
- Westad: sold to the Austrian Klinger Group in October 2013
- Atex: sold to the Norwegian Ex-Tech Group AS in December 2013
- Valco Group France SAS (SNRI/VVS): sold to Argos Soditic in February 2014
