Ascent Partners' Richard Rasmussen looks at all the major mergers, acquisitions, administrations, installations and sales in the local printing industry for the month of September.
The administrations continued in the month of September, with the largest being Tasmanian forestry group Gunns, who went into voluntary administration after the banks pulled their funding. That puts around 600 jobs at risk, and raises a big question mark against its (AU)$2 billion Bell Bay pulp mill investment. In FY 2012 Gunns made a $904 million loss.
Other administrations included Printworld International, a print management firm in NSW, Printmode, an A2 commercial printer in Melbourne, and Kea Print (NSW) who went into liquidation. Allprint & Packaging in QLD is due to have a creditor’s meeting for voluntary creditor’s liquidations early in October.
CBD Printing in Sydney fell into voluntary administration earlier in the month, with a later announcement stating that the four Snap centres under the group had been purchased by former chief executive, Richard Cook.
On the acquisition front, the major news was that a German media company, Bauer Media Group, purchased ACP Magazines for around $500 million.
A merger was announced between Melbourne digital printer, Docucopy, and long standing commercial offset Printer, Troedel. This merger will create a $6 million turnover business.
Fairfax also announced during the month that they were planning to build a new press hall in their North Richmond premises.
Major equipment sales and installs
Perhaps the biggest news of the month was Southern Colour’s (Vic) purchase of two Heidelberg XL 106 presses, a ten-colour perfector and six colour and coater to replace two four year old XL presses.
Also on the offset side came the announcement of a KBA 105 six colour press installed at Labelcraft in NSW.
After a fire swept through it in February, Special Binding Service in QLD, made perhaps the largest bindery investment for many years, announcing it had purchased:
- Two Kolbus perfect binders
- Two MBO folders
- An Meccanotecnica Aster Sewing machine
- Two guillotines with joggers and unloaders
- And other ancillary bindery equipment.
Gallus had success with installations of its ECS 340 Label Press at Dragon Print (NSW) and Impact Labels (QLD).
Other sales / installations included:
- Fineline Printing (Vic) installed a Kodak Nexpress
- Prologica (Vic) installed an Oce Arizona double bed 550 XT
- Central Imaging Technolgies (QLD) installed an Agfa Anapura M2540 digital flat bed
- Discus (WA) installed the Jeti 3020 wide format press.
Businesses on the market
We have six print related businesses on the market in VIC, NSW and QLD covering a wide cross section of the industry – details can be found on our web site, www.ascentpartners.com.au.
Market Watch
For further information on past month’s stories, see our Market Watch web page, http://www.ascentpartners.com.au/market-watch.php, or subscribe (FOC) to our monthly bulletin.