Kongsberg PCS has acquired MultiCam, an American company producing CNC cutting tables, thus taking out a rival and expanding its sales and installed base across North America and Europe.
Multicam, which is based in Texas, was founded in 1989. It supplies a broad range of cutting devices for applications ranging from sign making to digital finishing, aerospace to automotive, sheet-metal to plate-steel processing, hardwoods to cabinet making, thermoform trimming to plastics fabrication.
Stuart Fox, Kongsberg PCS president, commented: “This is a monumental day for Kongsberg and MultiCam. Our businesses coming together to drive best-in-class cutting and finishing processes will deliver a tremendous advantage for our global customer base. Following the completion of the deal I am now excited to begin integrating our businesses and exploring new markets.”
Kongsberg PCS was set up five months ago when Esko sold Kongsberg to OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm based in California, USA. OpenGate Capital has a strategy of pursuing add-on investments as means of growing and creating meaningful value in its portfolio companies. MultiCam is the seventh add-on investment completed for platform companies within OpenGate’s Fund II portfolio.
Julien Lagrèze, OpenGate Capital’s Partner, explains: “We recognized the importance of digitization for this business and developed an investment thesis that includes the growth of Kongsberg PCS through innovation and add-on investments. With this strategic combination, Kongsberg PCS gains greater scale, and expands its reach to a broader, global customer base with new products and services.”
This is an extremely good deal for Kongsberg since MultiCam has a much broader technology portfolio that includes 3-axis routers plasma machines, water jet tables and laser cutting solutions. MultiCam also brings a large installed base of some 14000 users Kongsberg’s 12000 customers. MultiCam was itself owned by Rosewood Private Investments.
Naturally neither side has disclosed the sum paid for MultiCam, which will now become a subsidiary of Kongsberg PCS but continue to operate under its own name. David Morse, Multicam’s CEO, will join the Kongsberg PCS senior management team and carry on heading up the MultiCam business.
Fox hinted that Kongsberg is interested in further acquisitions, adding: “At Kongsberg PCS, we are excited to develop and expand the product portfolio and to create new opportunities to grow our tooling and consumables offering. In addition to strengthening our hardware offering, we are also planning routes into new markets, in areas we know are currently not catered for and will benefit from our market-leading solutions. MultiCam has extraordinary market reach with its range of CNC routers, laser, plasma, waterjet and knife cutting machines, and we are thrilled to now welcome MultiCam to the Kongsberg family.”
You can find more details on the cutting products at kongsberg.com and multicam.com, and on the investment strategy at opengatecapital.com.
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