Months after declaring itself financially insolvent, Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH of Bonn, Germany, has a new owner.
The extrusion blow mold machinery maker is confirming the transfer of assets to a German subsidiary of Suzhou Jwell Machinery Co. Ltd.
Kautex will continue to operate the company's Bonn location and the deal maintains "a large part of the jobs," the company said.
Kautex has been restructuring through a process known as self administration in Germany in recent months after declaring insolvency in August 2023. Lawyer Mark Boddenberg from the Eckert law firm was appointed administrator of the case by the Bonn Local Court.
"With the ... transfer of business operations, the process achieves a quick and successful close, which sets the course for a positive future for the company. The fact that this was possible in the short time of the time underlines the effectiveness of the self-governing procedure as an instrument for the remediation and maintenance of companies," Boddenberg said in a statement.
A legally separate subsidiary of Kautex in Shunde, China, was not part of the insolvency proceedings.
Along with the headquarters, operations in Bonn include a customer training center as well as an area called Technikum where machines are developed. Kautex maintains another site in Berlin for sales and service and also has independent subsidiaries India, Italy, Indonesia, Mexico and Russia.
"The Bonn site ... will continue to operate in full under the new management. As a result of the transaction, a large proportion of the jobs will be retained — a decisive milestone for a stable future for Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH and its workforce," Kautex said in announcing the new owners.
"This not only represents a significant and positive development in economically challenging times, but is above all a strong commitment to the location, to the regional economy and the 155 employees."
The news release did not confirm the identity of Kautex's new owner. It instead described the buyer as "the German subsidiary of a Chinese investor." Plastics News has confirmed that company is family-owned Jwell Machinery.
Jwell calls itself the largest plastic extrusion machinery manufacturer in China. The company also makes blow molding, compounding, yarn spinning and other extrusion machinery.
Kautex was founded in 1935 and made its first machines for blow molding PVC tubes in 1949. By 1954 the company was manufacturing blow molding machines for containers with a capacity of up to 5 liters. The first export of machinery to the United States happened a year later.
Plastech Beteiligungs GmbH became majority shareholder of the company with a 74.9 percent share in 2018, purchasing the stake from company management and investment firm Capiton AG. Plastech's ownership increased to approximately 93 percent in 2021.
By last summer, the company deteriorated to the point of having to declare insolvency due to what the company at the time said were "a multitude of exogenous factors."
Kautex previously blamed COVID-19 and China's subsequent lockdown, supply chain difficulties, inflation and a shortage of skilled workers in Germany as key factors creating difficulties. Russia's invasion of Ukraine also created political uncertainties that rippled through the economy to cause problems.
The acquisition is the second high-profile acquisition of a plastics mahinery maker in the past few weeks. In December, Niigata Machinery Co. Ltd., the injection molding machinery side of Japan's Niigata Machine Techno Co. Ltd., was purchased by China's Haitian International Holdings.