2 Minutes Read (Adds details, background) Reuters, FRANKFURT, July 8 – According to persons familiar with the situation, buyout firm BC Partners has initiated an auction process for Ceramtec in a deal that may value the German industrial ceramics manufacturer at over 3.5 billion euros ($4.1 billion), including debt. Ceramtec’s products are employed in artificial hips and dental implants, as well as the thermal management of automobile batteries and electronic circuit carriers and heat sinks. According to the persons, BC Partners is working on the sale with Bank of America and Morgan Stanley and has requested first-round offers by the end of July. BC Partners announced the sale after receiving a lot of interest. Private equity groups such as a consortium of CVC and Partners Group, as well as peers such as Celanese and CoorsTek, are anticipated to make offers, they claimed. CoorsTek was not immediately available for comment, as were BC Partners, Celanese, CVC and Partners Group, and the banks. Any deal would add to an M&A frenzy that saw transactions reach a new high of $1.5 trillion in the second quarter as businesses scramble to reposition themselves for the post-COVID era. Technology and healthcare have been at the top of the dealmaking rankings. Ceramtec’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization fell 13% to 213 million euros in 2020, while revenues fell 11% to 553 million euros as patients postponed surgery due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of 2020, the net debt was 1.36 billion euros. Ceramtec was purchased by BC Partners from Cinven, a peer investor, for 2.6 billion euros. Ceramtec was created in 1903 by Thomaswerke, a porcelain factory. It began producing technical ceramics in the 1920s. 1 euro Equals 0.8448 dollars Arno Schuetze contributed reporting, while Edmund Blair and David Evans edited the piece./n
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