YOUNGSVILLE — Xerium Technologies Inc., which makes machine clothing and roll covers, has agreed to sell itself to an Austrian company in a deal valued at more than $830 million.
Xerium logo
The buyer is Andritz AG, an Austrian plant engineering company with more than 25,000 employees.
Xerium operates 28 manufacturing facilities in 13 countries and has approximately 2,850 employees, according to its website.
Andritz has agreed to pay $13.50 per share for Xerium, a price that is 146 percent higher than what the Youngsville-based company was trading at in March when it announced it was reviewing strategic alternatives.
The purchase price includes liabilities of approximately $590 million.
“We are very excited about this coming together with Andritz,” said Xerium Chief Executive Officer Mark Staton in a statement. “Their prestigious reputation in our industry, as well as their true global scale, provides a compelling opportunity for our own global workforce. I am convinced that Andritz will be a great long term owner of Xerium.”
Two of Xerium’s largest stockholders, Carl Marks Management Company and Wynnefield Capital, which together represent approximately 20 percent of Xerium’s outstanding common stock, have entered into a voting agreement with Andritz to support the merger.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2018.
Xerium’s shares rose $6.59, or 99.7 percent, to $13.20 in Monday morning trading. The deal was announced before the market opened.
Last year, Wynnefield filed a letter with the SEC expressing disappointment with the company after it replaced its chief executive officer, calling it an “astounding chain of events.”
In March, Xerium announced it was exploring strategic alternatives that could include a sale of the company.
In 2017, Xerium reported revenue of $481 million, up 2 percent from $471.3 million in revenue in 2016. Of that revenue, $288.3 million, or nearly 60 percent, came from machine clothing.
It reported a net loss of $14.6 million, or 90 cents per share, in 2017, an improvement from the net loss of $21.6 million, or $1.35 per share, in 2016.
This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism
