Livingstone advises global luxury brand SieMatic on strategic alliance with Nison Group
Livingstone’s Consumer sector team is pleased to announce it has advised the shareholders of August Siekmann Möbelwerke GmbH & Co. KG (“SieMatic”) in a transaction to bring the Chinese Nison-Group as a majority shareholder on board.
A well-known global luxury brand with a presence in over 60 countries, SieMatic is a leading manufacturer of premium kitchen furniture with a production site in Löhne, Germany. The brand stands for high quality “Made in Germany” craftsmanship.
With an eye towards long-term growth in Asia, SieMatic sought a strategic partner to expand into the challenging Chinese market. “SieMatic is very well positioned as a premium brand, especially in the core markets of Europe and the United States. Now we want to embark on the next step in our development together with the Nison-Group to grow faster in the key market of China,” said Ulrich W. Siekmann, CEO, and shareholder of SieMatic. “We are delighted to have the Nison-Group on board, a partner, and expert with a long-term strategy who will support us in the course we have adopted together.
The Nison-Group is a family-owned company, founded in 1994 and headquartered in Suzhou, PR China. In addition to real estate transactions and acquisitions, the Nison Group is the Chinese market leader in the quality home appliance sector and other highly respected premium brands. In 2016, the Nison-Group, comprising the quoted KingClean Electric Co., Ltd. and employing around 10,000 people, generated around US$ 900 million in sales.
“The alliance offers both companies excellent opportunities for future development,” said Nison Group Founder and Chairman, Zugen Ni. “SieMatic is one of the best-known premium vendors in the global kitchen furniture industry and will enable us to expand our portfolio ideally. We aim to apply SieMatic’s brand strategy to the Chinese market and significantly boost sales by using our extensive market expertise. Especially in the premium segment, we can observe growing demand in China for high-quality craftsmanship, as well as greater sustainability and individualization. SieMatic, therefore, has outstanding growth opportunities and fits very well with us.”
As the exclusive M&A-advisor, Livingstone provided an integrated global team to handle the specific requirements of a Sino-German transaction. “We are pleased that we could advise the shareholders of SieMatic in this groundbreaking decision for the company’s future. From the very beginning of the discussion with Nison-Group, there was a joint understanding of the synergy between both family-owned companies which helped us find an overall outstanding solution which works for both parties,” added Ralph Hagelgans, Partner at Livingstone together with Baoshan Bao, Managing Director at Livingstone.
Livingstone regularly advises clients on cross-border transactions. Most recently the firm advised Metal and Waste Recycling on its sale to European Metal Recycling, the shareholder of epex group on the sale of the majority of their shares to French Samsic Group, and TaTa Technologies on its latest acquisition of Escenda.
