United Grinding Group buys GF’s Machining Solutions: the advisors
GF completed the divestment of its GF Machining Solutions division to United Grinding Group. In connection with the deal, Bär & Karrer advised the buyer, while NKF represented the selling part.
The parties agreed a purchase price of CHF 630 million on a cash and debt-free basis. Annual sales to be carved out from GF amounted to CHF 885 million in 2024. Pursuant to the transaction, the buyer incorporates approximately 3,300 employees and production sites in eight locations across Europe, Asia and the US.
The parties
Headquartered in Schaffhausen (Switzerland), GF is an international industrial and publicly listed corporation, active in the fields of piping systems, building flow solutions, casting solutions and machining solutions.
The buyer, Grinding technology specialist United Grinding Group, employs more than 2000 people globally. The majority shareholder of United Grinding is Patinex, a Swiss holding company wholly owned by Martin and Rosmarie Ebner.
The Bär & Karrer team
The team Bär & Karrer working on the matter featured Ralph Malacrida (pictured above) and Tim Salz (both M&A and financing), Dominique Simmen (M&A), Susanne Schreiber, Alessia Suter and Fabian Capt (all tax), Markus Wang and Christine Schweikard (both IP and IT), Mani Reinert and Tim Meyer (both competition), Patrick Neher (real estate), Laura Widmer and Manuel Schmid (both employment), Ruth Bloch-Riemer and Stefan Bollinger (both pensions and social security) as well as Özden Omürcan and Kevin Kögler (both notarial services).
The NKF team
Transactions partners Andrea Giger (pictured right) and Philip Spoerlé (pictured left) led the NKF team on the matter, working alongside senior associates Katalin Siklosi and Julia Tolstova, associate Lorenzo Henseler and partner Ulysses von Salis (all transactions), partner Thomas Hochstrasser (commercial), associate Manuel Hirlinger and junior associates Manuel Constam, Norina Frey, Nina Lötscher and Selim Tisli (all transactions), partner Adrian Koller and associate Carlotta Ulmer (both financing), partners Thomas Graf, Marcel Meier, Daniela Schmucki and Morgan Boeffard, senior associate Sven Kälin and associate Michel Herren (all tax), partner Fabiano Menghini and associate Noémie Amman (both real estate), partner Nicolas Birkhäuser and associate Lukas Poschung (both antitrust/FDI), as well as partner Daniel Eisele and counsel Livia Keller (commercial/employment).
NKF found support from multi-jurisdictional teams of White & Case led by Gernot Wagner, Rebecca Emory, Stefan Bressler and Fabian Mayer (all Frankfurt) and the teams of Dentons in Vietnam and Taiwan.
