PUNCH PURCHASES XEIKON'S BELGIAN, U.S. ASSETS

May 1, 2002 12:00 PM

Punch International NV (St-Martens-Latem, Belgium), an electronics and CTP-system manufacturer and OEM supplier, has acquired the assets of Xeikon NV (Mortsel, Belgium). Xeikon had filed for the Belgian equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy last November; recently, it decided to liquidate its assets after it was unable to secure additional financing.

MAN Roland and Yam International/Alpha Capital AG also had submitted bids. Punch reportedly had been interested in purchasing Xeikon's assets for some time, however, and resubmitted an offer after a Belgian court declared Xeikon bankrupt in March. The acquisition price was not made public.

Under the deal, Punch acquires all assets of Xeikon in Belgium and will retain 235 former employees. The company has decided to keep the Xeikon brand name. The acquisition also includes Xeikon's toner facility in Heultje, Belgium; its production activity in Mortsel; and intellectual property rights and all stock. Punch's new digital color press division will be called Xeikon International. The new management team will consist mostly of former professional and managerial staff of Xeikon NV, and will be headed by Jan Van Daele, former Xeikon R&D director.

Punch has also acquired the activities of Xeikon America, Inc. (Wood Dale, IL). The subsidiary will continue its initiative launched in September 2001 to service and sell directly to end users in North America.

Punch is currently investigating the acquisition of the subsidiary in Japan.

In other news, Xeikon International has stopped the market introduction of its sheetfed digital color press, the CSP 320 D. The company plans instead to focus its resources on its web-fed DCP product family, which has more than 2,200 installations worldwide. This will enable Xeikon to better allocate the technical and marketing resources that would have been necessary to launch a second product line in the competitive mid-volume, cut-sheet market. The company is evaluating the situation of existing CSP customers on an individual basis, and in the mean time will provide them full support.

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