The consolidation of Italian injection press makers keeps rolling, as Negri Bossi SpA said it will spend $6 million to buy 70 percent of BM Biraghi SpA of Monza, Italy.
The Negri Bossi Group - including Negri Bossi, BMB and Oima SpA, a specialized press supplier purchased last November - will generate total sales of $143 million this year and employ 550, according to company officials.
Companies in the group have more than 20,000 injection presses installed around the world. The company said 260 employees, or nearly half the group total, work at the Negri Bossi headquarters factory in Cologno Monzese, Italy.
Negri Bossi said buying BMB gives the group a significant presence in Eastern Europe and adds expertise in presses for molding PET preforms. BMB generated 2001 sales of $21 million, and reported a higher operating profit margin than Negri Bossi.
The PET preform capabilities tie in with Negri Bossi's new parent company, Sacmi Imola scrl. Sacmi, based in Imola, Italy, is known in plastics packaging for its compression molding machines to make caps for beverage bottles, plus other downstream cap equipment such as slitting and folding machines. Sacmi's largest business is machinery to produce ceramic tiles, dishes and other products.
Sacmi bought a 60 percent stake in Negri Bossi, in a deal completed Feb. 20. Negri Bossi became a publicly traded company Nov. 6 on the Milan stock exchange.
Two weeks after the initial public offering, Negri Bossi paid $5 million to gain 70 percent of Oima, a press maker in Treviso, Italy. Not long after that, Sacmi announced it wanted to buy Negri Bossi.
Negri Bossi will pay cash for BMB. The $142.3 million in expected 2002 sales, after the BMB acquisition, represents a 66 percent increase for Negri Bossi Group sales from 2001.
In Europe, some machinery sector observers say more consolidation is likely for Italy's many injection press makers, so they can become stronger to defend against German imports - trade bolstered by the euro currency.
