Swedish NIBE Industrier AB acquires the Czech Republic’s largest manufacturer of electric water heaters – DZ Dražice
- Sector
- Engineering, water heaters
- Target company
- Družstevní závody Dražice – strojírna s.r.o.
- Seller
- 7 private individal shareholders
- Buyer
- NIBE Industrier AB
- Our role
- Advisory to buyer
- Transaction size
- Undisclosed
- Year
- 2006
DZ Dražice (Družstevní závody Dražice – strojírna s.r.o.) is the Czech Republic’s leading name in the development, manufacturing and marketing of electric water heaters. In addition to serving a large domestic market, DZ Dražice exports to several countries. The company has a long history. Founded in 1900, it has been, like NIBE, making electric water heaters since the 1950s. DZ Dražice had approximately 250 employees and annual sales revenues above EUR 20 million.
The NASDAQ-listed Swedish, NIBE Industrier AB (NIBE.B), together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells various energy-efficient solutions for indoor climate comfort and components and solutions for intelligent heating and control worldwide. The company operates in three areas: NIBE Climate Solutions, NIBE Element, and NIBE Stoves. DZ Dražice will form part of the NIBE Heating business area. The acquisition will help improve NIBE’s production flexibility, expand internationally, and use DZ Dražice as a platform for sales of NIBE’s heat pumps in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
A partner of Merger Vision originated the transaction for the buyer and led the team providing M&A advisory throughout negotiations with sellers, some of them being key managers of the target company.