Reuters reports that the US investment firm of Blackstone is interested in selling their 45 per cent stake in Leica Camera AG. It is anticipated that several companies are interested. The current value of Leica is estimated to be 700 million euros. However, the majority ownership of the company will remain in the hands of majority owner Andreas Kaufmann.
Kaufmann and his holding
company of ACM bought Leica in 2006.
Five years later he sold a 45 percent stake in his company to Blackstone. Just recently Huawei, the world’s third
largest manufacturer of cell phones, signed an agreement with Leica which
allows them to use Leica camera technology in their cell phones. However, it is unclear if they are ready to
post a bid for the Blackstone stake in the company. It is also thought that Zeiss of Oberkochen,
Germany might be interested, however, that would only be the case if they could
obtain a majority stake. Other
interested parties are thought to be family investors as well as private equity funds and competitors
from Asia.
For the current fiscal
year, Leica expects an operating profit of approximately 70 million euros
before taxes, interest and depreciation.
Blackstone hopes that potential buyers will place a higher rating on the
luxury vendor Leica than on Japanese mass manufacturers such as Canon and
Nikon. While the camera industry as a
whole has been hard hit under pressure by the powerful smartphone cameras, Leica
cameras have resisted the downward trend.
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