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Private equity fund Enterprise Investors has signed initial agreements to takeover the Jaan/Nordglass Group, a producer and distributor of windshields. "We are convinced that we are passing the company to good hands, that people will have work and the firm will develop," said Andrzej Woniakowski, the president of Jaan.
The firm's strategy involves continuing low-volume production of windshields, the development of the distribution network in Europe and improvements to the distribution and installation network in Poland. Currently the company produces 700,000 windshields a year and about 50 percent of production is exported, mainly to Spain, Italy and Germany. After the company opens its newly completed factory, the number of manufactured windshields is to increase to one million.
The transaction is expected to be finalized in two months, after permission is received from the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. The group, which currently consists of four firms with different legal statuses, will be transformed into a limited liability company. Enterprise Investors aims in the future to launch Jaan on the stock exchange. The buyer has not revealed the cost of the transaction, however, it did say that the sale is "rather big," and worth more than zł.100 million.
The Jaan/Nordglass Group is the fifth-largest manufacturer of windshields in Europe and the biggest distributor in Poland. The company specializes in technologically advanced low-volume production of windshields for almost all models of passenger cars, vans and buses, as well as special glass for the construction industry.
In 2006 the company's revenues came to around zł.140 million while its operating profit was zł.25 million.
