Management of machinery manufacturer Billion (Bellignat / France; www.billion.fr) under managing director Korbinian Kiesl is acquiring the company for an undisclosed sum from the Mannesmann Plastics Machinery Group (MPM, Munich / Germany; www.mpm-group.com). The French firm, smallest of the MPM subsidiaries, will be de-consolidated retroactive to 1 October 2005. Plans to divest group companies with sales below a critical dimension of around EUR 200m were revealed by MPM chairman Pepyn Dinandt at the "Fakuma" exhibition last year – see Plasteurope.com Web of 03.11.2005.

In future, MPM will concentrate on the four machinery brands Krauss-Maffei, Demag Plastics Group, Netstal and extrusion machinery manufacturer Berstorff, Dinandt said in announcing the sell-off. Speculation last year had also put Berstorff among the group of divestment candidates. Apparently, however, there is no longer any threat of this. The company has the potential to achieve the targeted turnover, a spokesman for MPM told PIE. In fiscal year 2004/2005 (30 September), Berstorff posted sales of EUR 152.1m (EUR 126m in 2003/2004), while incoming orders totalled EUR 150.1m (EUR 130m).

Billion´s sales in 2004/2005 are believed to have been slightly below the previous year, at EUR 33m. The company, which has 240 employees and manufactures around 250 machines annually with clamping forces of between 400 and 25,000 kN, posted a slight loss for 2004/2005, but was back in the black for the first five months of the current fiscal year. The specialist for two-component applications is only a minor player on the international market. Around 60% of production is sold in France, where it holds a market share of 15%.