Aurubis AG: Acquisition of Metallo Group fully completed

Aurubis AG has acquired the recycling company Metallo. This marks the formal closing of the transaction, which was effective May 29, 2020. Metallo will be fully consolidated into the Aurubis Group starting June 1. Metallo Group Holding was previously majority-owned by investment firm TowerBrook Capital Partners.

With the Metallo acquisition, the Aurubis Group, a leading global provider and recycler of copper and other non-ferrous metals, is gaining another company in Belgium (Beerse with about 450 employees) in addition to Olen, as well as a company in Spain for the first time (Berango in the province of Biscay with about 90 employees). The EU competition authorities issued their unconditional approval of the acquisition on May 4, 2020 after an extensive review. The name Metallo, an established name on the recycling market, will be retained.

Roland Harings, Aurubis AG Executive Board Chairman, commented on the closing of the transaction in a video released today for all of the employees:

A little over a year after the announcement, we can now welcome all of our Metallo colleagues to the worldwide Aurubis family. We will integrate the Metallo production sites to form an optimized production network of our plants in Hamburg, Pirdop, Lünen, and Olen together with Beerse and Berango. This will lead to more than 1 million tons of recycling capacity for secondary material.

Harings emphasized: “This acquisition represents an important step in the implementation of our multimetal strategy. Our stated goal is to become one of the most efficient and sustainable smelter networks in the world.”

Dirk Vandenberghe, CEO and Director of Metallo: “I’m sure I speak for all Metallo employees when I say that we are very pleased to become part of Aurubis and to bundle our experience spanning a combined total of more than 250 years. Metallo specializes in processing recycling materials with low metal contents, with a focus on tin, lead, nickel, zinc, and copper. We have a ‘zero waste’ approach – even as the compositions of the input materials become increasingly complex. As part of Aurubis, we want to continue processing all of the input materials into valuable products, making an important sustainability contribution as one company.”

“The Metallo-Aurubis merger is not just a very positive move for the two companies, it is great news for the recycling industry and Europe,” Patrick Verschelde, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Metallo, assessed the closing of the transaction. “The add-ons of Metallo technologies and expertise to those of Aurubis will allow the expanded Aurubis Group to treat even more complex materials in order to return to the value chain base metals which are very much in demand in Europe.”

The purchase price for the transaction amounts to € 380 million and will be financed with borrowed capital. In light of the stable debt and liquidity situation at Aurubis, a capital increase isn’t required.