Promotional products and writing instrument producer Senator GmbH & Co. KGaA (UPIC: SENATOR) has been sold to private equity firm Perusa Partners. The Merz Group, under which Senator previously operated, will focus on its global aesthetics and neurotoxins businesses.
Under its new shareholder, and as contractually agreed by Merz and Perusa, Senator’s Gross-Bieberau, Germany, location will be retained as the company’s headquarters. Senator’s business will continue to be run by current management. The deal’s financial terms were not disclosed.
“We are convinced that the sale to Perusa is the right way to ensure the long-term development of Senator,” says Michael Nick, a Merz shareholder and Senator’s supervisory board chairman. “Thanks to its ability to generate high added value and its modern machinery, Senator is well-equipped for the future. And with backing from a strong, strategically interested partner that will invest in the business and its people, Senator can enhance its market position and lay the foundations for further growth.”
Founded in 1920, Senator recorded revenue of just under €50 million ($55.3 million) in fiscal year 2014/15. It currently has approximately 350 employees worldwide. As well as ballpoint pens, its product range includes drinkware, writing cases and accessories. Its pens were previously sold in the promotional products industry exclusively through supplier Beacon Promotions, Inc., which took on the line in January 2013, and before that by Camsing Global LLC, which acquired Senator Writing Instruments in January 2011.
“Senator has an excellent reputation as a leading manufacturer of premium promotional products in Europe,” says Dr. Hanno Schmidt-Gothan, managing director of Munich-based Perusa GmbH, which advises the acquirer Perusa Partners. “We look forward to working with the teams in Gross-Bieberau and the foreign subsidiaries to strengthen the company’s core business and take it forward to further success.”
The independent private equity firm Perusa Partners was established in 2008 and is investing currently through two funds with equity of €350 million ($387.6 million), primarily in medium-sized companies and businesses from corporate groups with potential for long-term value creation based in German-speaking or Scandinavian countries.
