MCF advises Wärtsilä on the divestment of JOVYATLAS
Wärtsilä Corporation (“Wärtsilä”), a Finnish publicly listed technology group, has divested 100% of the shares in Wärtsilä JOVYATLAS GmbH (“JOVYATLAS”) to Jacob Waitz Industrie GmbH (“Jacob Waitz Industrie”), a German based investment company. MCF acted as adviser to Wärtsilä throughout the process, from early preparations to final negotiations. This transaction marks MCF’s second engagement for Wärtsilä, following the divestment of its pumps business to Solix Group in 2018.
MCF acted as adviser to Wärtsilä throughout the process, from early preparations to final negotiations.
The Deal
JOVYATLAS is part of Wärtsilä’s Portfolio Business, which consists of multiple independently run business units, focused on accelerating performance and unlocking value through divestments or other strategic alternatives. As part of the preparation, MCF advised on the demerger and carve-out of the JOVYATLAS business into a separate legal entity. Potential buyers from a variety of geographies were approached in March with COVID-19 issues leading to several foreign buyers withdrawing from the process. The deal team from several MCF offices managed to raise sufficient interest from various parties with Jacob Waitz Industrie being identified as the best future owner of JOVYATLAS ensuring that the business will continue at the present location in Jemgum.
Following the acquisition, the new owner Jacob Waitz Industrie plans to develop JOVYATLAS alongside with their portfolio company POLYMA Energiesysteme GmbH, to become a market leading provider of UPS, transformers, and resistors.
The transaction is expected to close on 1 October.
The Target
Founded in 1945 and headquartered in Jemgum, Germany, JOVYATLAS is a renowned manufacturer of customised uninterruptable power supply (UPS) and resistor solutions with an extended history in the market and strong brand recognition. The company has approx. 125 employees and revenues in 2019 were EUR 20m. End markets served include maritime industry and ports, renewable energy, datacentres, and IT infrastructure, amongst others. JOVYATLAS became part of Wärtsilä through the acquisition of L-3 Communications MSI in 2015.
About Wärtsilä
Wärtsilä is a global leader in smart technologies and complete lifecycle solutions for the marine and energy markets. By emphasising sustainable innovation, total efficiency, and data analytics, Wärtsilä maximises the environmental and economic performance of the vessels and power plants of its customers. In 2019, Wärtsilä’s net sales totalled EUR 5.2 billion with approximately 19,000 employees. The company has operations in over 200 locations in more than 80 countries around the world. Wärtsilä is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki.