The sale of Netstal from Germany's financially struggling KraussMaffei Technologies GmbH has been successfully completed on March 28. The closure follows the signing of the purchase agreement on Feb. 6 and the announcement of the deal on Jan. 29.
Swiss injection press supplier Netstal Maschinen AG alongside Netstal Deutschland and 11 other sales and service units in the US, South America, Europe, and Asia are now officially part of Krones, a German packaging and bottle machine manufacturer.
As part of the sale, over 500 Netstal employees have been transferred to Krones. KraussMaffei said in a statement that Netstal will continue to manage its business independently.
“The sale of Netstal is part of our long-term plan to realign KraussMaffei strategically, organisationally and on the global market,” KraussMaffei’s CEO, Chi Zhang, said in a statement disclosing the sale in February. “In the future, we want to concentrate fully on our core business and new growth markets, strengthen the KraussMaffei core brand and focus the Group accordingly,” Zhang added.
KraussMaffei officials have always denied speculation that Netstal was for sale. Plans for the eventual sale have been rumoured since August 2021, when KraussMaffei announced that KraussMaffei High Performance AG would become an independent unit with its name reverting back to Netstal, effective Oct. 1, 2021.
The sales comes as KraussMaffei lost at least 2.55 billion RMB (€333.2 million) and as much as to 3.0 billion RMB (€392.0 million) in 2023, according to a “pre-loss announcement” issued Jan. 31.