Wetzlar/Jena/Ditzingen — The TRUMPF Group, one of the world’s leading high-tech companies for machine tools, lasers and electronics for industrial applications, has acquired an 80 percent stake in Active Fiber Systems GmbH (AFS), a fiber laser specialist based in Jena, Germany. AFS was advised by sonntag corporate finance GmbH, one of the leading M&A consultancies in the German SME sector. Fabian Schmidt and his team of experts for transactions in the high-tech sector were responsible for the project.
AFS, based in Jena, Thuringia, develops and manufactures ultrashort pulse fiber laser systems, which are mainly used in science and research. The company, which today has 37 employees, was founded in 2009 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer IOF Jena and the Institute of Applied Physics at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. In addition to basic research, applications include the generation of extremely short-wavelength light with high coherence, bio-medical imaging, and materials processing. “AFS works very close to research and develops laser systems at the highest level,” Schmidt said. “TRUMPF is the ideal buyer here, preserving AFS’ strengths in its excellent environment and jointly strengthening its positions in scientific, industrial and medical lasers.”
Through the majority shareholding, TRUMPF will in the future primarily focus on creating synergy effects in research as well as further developing its own ultrashort pulse laser portfolio. Overall, the business is to be expanded in the growing segment for science and industrial applications. Founded in 1923 and based in Ditzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the TRUMPF Group is represented by more than 70 subsidiaries in almost all European countries, in North and South America, and in Asia, and is a leader in machine tools for flexible sheet metal processing and in industrial lasers. In 2020/21 the Group generated sales of 3.5 billion euros with around 14,800 employees.
About the Trumpf Group
Our task is to further develop and digitally network production technology, to make it even more economical, precise and future-proof — that is . In doing so, we want to make production and its upstream and downstream processes more efficient. We are building the industrial world of tomorrow. We are the market and technology leader in machine tools and lasers for industrial manufacturing, and our innovations are effective in almost every industry. Our software solutions pave the way to the smart factory, and in industrial electronics we enable high-tech processes. (Sales Euro 3.5 billion in fiscal 2020/21.). www.trumpf.com
About sonntag corporate finance
sonntag corporate finance GmbH, based in Wetzlar, Hesse, is one of the leading M&A consultancies for German medium-sized companies. The team of almost 30 experts accompanies medium-sized entrepreneurs exclusively through the entire sales process. “Our task is to safeguard life’s work,” is how we see ourselves. In the process, customers benefit from a unique approach that has won multiple awards from the business press, with an anonymized bidding process that provides special protection for the identity of their companies. At the beginning of 2021, succession planning was carried out in-house with a so-called management buy-out by team. The takeover by an eight-strong management team headed by managing directors Patrick Seip and Julian Will ensures that consulting services will continue to be provided at eye level in the future.
In the Refinitiv League Table 2021, sonntag corporate finance ranks 11th and is thus once again one of the most active M&A consulting boutiques in the medium-sized segment. www.sonntagcf.com