Exzellenz unter einem Dach: C. Nesemeier (MBB SE) im Interview

We are indeed a technology-oriented, medium-sized industrial company that consists of various holdings. We have five aspects that make us special and define us. First, we are focused on growth. The company is now 20 years old and has been listed on the stock exchange for ten years. Ten years after going public with 730 million euros in sales, this year we are making 250 million euros in sales. You can see the growth comes from organic growth but also from acquisitions. That's the first point. The second point is we are convinced that Germany as a location, where we essentially focus, is an ideal location for engineering and technology orientation. That means our companies, which are medium-sized, are market leaders or in second position in their respective markets. The third is that we are medium-sized oriented, meaning our companies have between 300 and 550 employees, and we have organized our structures accordingly. The fourth is that we say we have the name MBB; the first larger company we bought in 1997 was a former Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm subsidiary, and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm stood for a certain technology focus, and we have committed to that and say it is a nice name that we now, as the sole successor company, continue to carry into the future. And the last is that we say we are family-oriented; friends and I personally founded the company 20 years ago and still run it today jointly with the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and I myself am the CEO of the company. In my view, that provides identity, provides reliability, and also helps, because of the stock exchange listing, that we have long-term financing opportunities.

We currently have six companies, five of which are located in the East Westphalia region and one near the border with Poland in Poland. The largest company is NBB Fertigungstechnik in Beelen, a former subsidiary of the agricultural machinery group Claas. There we are active in special machine construction and have market-leading positions in some niches, for example in built camshafts. So, if you drive a mid-range car from a German premium manufacturer today, then you typically have an axle that was manufactured on one of our systems. The company has 300 employees and generates nearly 100 million euros in sales. The second is Delignit Bromberg, originally the inventor of beech plywood, today a company that offers technical materials based on wood, so ecological. And we are market leader, for example market leader in light commercial vehicles for the floor equipment. That comes directly from us to the factory of the manufacturers. We are European market leader there. That is one aspect, another is that we are very well positioned in the rail industry. That means if you have high-speed trains today, then the floor, for example, can come from us.

The company is DTS in Herford, a classic IT service company with its own data centers that offers a medium-sized entrepreneur an all-round carefree package when it comes to IT support, from hardware to software to data backup in the corresponding data center. The company made good 35 million euros in sales, has 100 employees, and has been with us since 2008. Then we have CT Formpolster in Löhne, a manufacturer of flexible foam specialized in the production of mattresses, a former Continental subsidiary that has been with us since 2010. And as another company, we have the table manufacturer Hanke Tissue, which is located in Poland, a company that is market leader in Poland in printed napkins. That is, we also produce toilet paper and kitchen rolls but are market leader in printed napkins, which is a very attractive niche. Then we have OBO in Stadthagen, a manufacturer of polyurethane boards that go into the design departments, particularly of the automotive industry, and are used to subsequently produce models of either components or complete vehicles.

There are two approaches. One approach is the so-called bolt-on picture – there we look to find additions for our existing companies, meaning we make acquisitions that make the company we already have larger or better positioned in the market. There are numerous examples in recent years. The most recent thing we did was acquire a business unit from Huntsman, a large international chemical company, for OBO, where we added the liquid materials to the boards I just mentioned. The company OBI had sales of good 12 million euros before this acquisition and will go towards 20 million this year. Another example is that we acquired DAK Automotive for Delignit. Delignit, as a wood-based materials company, is market leader in light commercial vehicles but was not active in passenger cars until then. DAK has developed a process where they deliver components for passenger cars made from wood-based materials. With that, we have essentially entered a new market segment. It is small, so DAK itself makes 5 million euros in sales, and Delignit made 35 million before. You can see what significance that has, but also what opportunity that means for the future. Beyond that, we are of course always happy if we could add a seventh company. We have grown over the years essentially through such acquisitions. I'll mention as an example the acquisition of MBB Fertigungstechnik from the Claas family. It was like this: this company grew within the Claas group but was not part of the core business of the agricultural machinery industry; it was a machine builder. Claas decided to sell it, but placed great value on finding a good new owner who would accompany the company long-term and solidly. We came into discussions and were very pleased that we could acquire it in 2012 and continue to develop it since. That is the second aspect, and it certainly has significance for our overall growth.

We are financially solidly positioned. We have an equity ratio of 40% in the group. We have good 80 million in equity. We currently have 50 million in cash. That means you can already see that we are not over-financed or highly leveraged, but we have always placed value on retaining maximum flexibility as management and owners, and that should continue to be the case. That was also a reason why we decided to go public in 2006, simply to have the opportunity to make further financing, if necessary, via the capital market. But there, we have said: we are a family-run medium-sized company. The majority of the shares, good 70%, remain with the founders, and that should remain in the future. So we are financially very well positioned, very flexible, and can actually realize further acquisitions at any time from our own strength.

So, we are 20 years on the market, now have 250 million in sales in six companies. We believe that we can continue this dynamic development that we have realized in the past into the future. And there are many approaches. And it is of course also the case that once you have reached such a size and such reputation on the capital market as we have today, many things become easier. I always say: in 1997, when we had nothing but an idea, we still got through the door and were able to buy a company at the end of the day. Then from the perspective we are in now, it should be much easier. If we can quantify it, I personally can well imagine that we could even double our sales again by 2020.