NEW YORK, May 3, 2000 - Castle Harlan, Inc., the New York merchant bank, announced today the acquisition of Gravograph Industrie International, the world's leading maker and seller of machines, accessories and materials used in the engraving industry. The transaction was valued at approximately $100 million.
Gravograph has major facilities in Atlanta, Georgia, and Troyes, France, and markets its products throughout the world under the Gravograph and New Hermes brand names. The United States is by far the company's largest market, representing more than 40 percent of 1999 sales.
"This is an excellent company with strong global brands," said Robert C. Wages, the Castle Harlan director who led the negotiations for the firm, along with Marcel Fournier, a managing director. "It has an outstanding reputation for the quality of its products and services.
"The company also offers excellent opportunities for growth through entry into new markets, creative use of new marketing techniques and the introduction of innovative products."
Gravograph manufactures and distributes manual and computerized engraving machines, as well as accessories and materials on which engravings are made. It also provides engraving software, training and maintenance services.
Wages said that senior executives, including Gerard Guyard and Albert Journo, will remain with the company and participate in the buyout with Castle Harlan. Guyard, currently managing director and chief operating officer, will be promoted to chief executive officer.
Gravograph had revenues in 1999 of $95 million. It markets its products directly, through 10 subsidiaries and 28 exclusive distributors throughout the world and has some 650 employees.
The company was founded in 1938 in the United States as New Hermes, the developer of the pantograph, a portable engraving machine. The company is being sold by Financière St Luc, a private French holding company, which has owned Gravograph since 1991.
Gravograph is the fourteenth company acquired by Castle Harlan Partners III L.P., a private equity limited partnership with $630 million in committed capital. Castle Harlan said approximately 50 percent of the fund had now been invested.
Since its founding in 1987, Castle Harlan has completed acquisitions exceeding $4.5 billion. Companies in the Castle Harlan Partners III portfolio include Worldwide Flight Services, a major provider of ground services for more than 200 airlines throughout the world; Universal Compression, a leading independent provider of natural gas compression equipment and services; Charlie Brown's and Marie Callender's, two popular restaurant chains, the former in New Jersey and the other on the West Coast, and AdobeAir, one of the nation's leading manufacturers of evaporative coolers and portable electric heaters.
Castle Harlan was founded by John K. Castle, an early pioneer of institutionalized private equity investing and the former president and chief executive officer of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the investment bank, and by Leonard M. Harlan, founder and former chairman of The Harlan Company, a diversified real estate and corporate finance advisory firm.