Wuppertal, 21 December 2016 - As part of a succession planning process, GESCO AG has acquired the Pickhardt & Gerlach Group (PGW), a leading strip steel processor based in Finnentrop. The company was sold by the entrepreneur family Hekhorn, who acquired PGW in 1990 and has significantly expanded its business operations since. The transaction is still awaiting approval by antitrust authorities.

PGW processes cold rolled strip steel using highly automated production systems and distributes its products in the form of nickel-, copper-, brass- or zinc-plated strip steel in various standards of quality and dimensions in accordance with customer requirements. As a leading processor of strip steel, the company has a broad and well-established customer basis in the electronics, automotive, decoration, sporting equipment and office supplies sectors. The company, founded in 1902, generates sales of roughly EUR 30 million, two-thirds of which are attributed to activities abroad.

Long-time managing partner Michael F. Hekhorn will play an advisory role for the company during a transitional period; managing director of technology Dr Paul Braun and the heads of domestic sales/export Armin Wieland and Dirk Limberg will continue to work for PGW and ensure management continuity. "Sustainable business management was a top priority for my family and me in our search for a successor for our family business," said Michael F. Hekhorn. "The interests of our workforce were particularly important to us in this regard. We opted for GESCO because we were impressed by the entrepreneurial, long-term approach. We consider our lifetime achievement to be in very safe hands under its new ownership."

"Mr Hekhorn has moulded PGW into a flagship manufacturer in this particular sector over a number of decades," said Dr Eric Bernhard, Chairman of the Executive Board of GESCO AG. PGW is a real 'hidden champion' in the resource technology sector and couldn't be a better fit to our new portfolio strategy. We have taken on this company with a long-term mindset, in line with the GESCO philosophy, and will foster its development moving forward."

PGW's special coating solutions with their precision tolerances are the basis for the long life and high-tech appearance of the end products supplied by PGW's customers, such as electronic circuit breakers, file folders and windscreen wipers.

GESCO AG is an industrial group with market and technology leaders in the investment goods industry focusing on production process technology, resource technology, health and infrastructure technology and mobility technology. As a stock listed company on the Prime Standard, GESCO AG offers private and institutional investors access to a portfolio of leading small and medium-sized industrial German companies, so-called hidden champions of Germany's Mittelstand.

Investor Relations - Oliver Vollbrecht
Tel. +49 202 24820-18 - Fax +49 202 24820-49
Email: info@gesco.de - Internet: www.gesco.de