Investment firms WL Ross and W.P.
Investment firms WL Ross and W.P. Carey have completed investments totalling EUR86m in European automotive supplier Wagon, with WL Ross contributing some EUR47m via a special rights offering of the company’s common shares.
Two of W.P. Carey’s publicly held non-traded real estate investment trusts, CPA:15 and CPA:17 – Global, have also provided EUR 39m via a sale and leaseback of Wagon’s German manufacturing sites in Waldaschaff and Nagold.
‘The new capital from WL Ross and W. P. Carey comes at an ideal time,’ says Wagon chief financial officer Richard Cotton. ‘It enables us to fund our growth initiatives, support the company’s recent contract wins with Iveco and Porsche, and repay existing debt facilities.’
Founded in 1918 as a railway wagon repair business, Wagon now focuses on the design, engineering and manufacture of vehicle body structures and closure systems and is a major supplier to the European automotive industry, with customers including Peugeot, Renault, Daimler and Volkswagen. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Wagon employs 6,500 people at 22 plants in 10 countries.
‘We are delighted to support a portfolio company backed by Wilbur Ross,’ says W.P. Carey director Jeffrey Lefleur. ‘Furthermore, with this transaction closed, we’ve provided approximately EUR100m in sale-leaseback financing in Europe in the last two months, affirming our position as a leading source of alternative long-term finance.’ W. P. Carey also committed to providing an additional EUR7m of financing to meet Wagon’s manufacturing expansion plans.
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who will see his firm’s stake in Wagon grow from 15 to well over 75 per cent, says: ‘We were supportive of the sale-leaseback with W.P. Carey as an alternative method of raising capital and enhancing Wagon’s long-term value.’
Ross also has created International Auto Components Group, a global supplier of automotive components and systems formed from the former interiors divisions of Lear and Collins & Aikman and by the acquisition of Plascar in Brazil and MBK in Japan.
