Tuttlingen/ Munich — The share­hol­ders of HSTEC d.d. in Zadar/Croatia, system part­ner for inno­va­tive spindle drive tech­no­logy for CNC machine tools, for fixtures as well as for spindle services and repair, have sold 90% of their company shares to the CHIRON Group. The company, head­quar­te­red in Tutt­lin­gen, Germany, specia­li­zes in CNC-control­led verti­cal milling and mill-turn machi­ning centers as well as turn­key and auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons. Proven­tis Part­ners and Inter­Ca­pi­tal were the exclu­sive advi­sors to HSTEC on this transaction.

The tran­sac­tion
The share­hol­ders of HSTEC, which was foun­ded in 1997, had deci­ded to sell their shares as part of succes­sion plan­ning. With the CHIRON Group, an ideal stra­te­gic inves­tor could be found for the company, which can accom­pany HSTEC in its further growth with a world­wide sales network and high tech­ni­cal compe­tence in machine tool cons­truc­tion. With today’s acqui­si­tion of 90 percent of the Croa­tian HSTEC, the CHIRON Group, head­quar­te­red in Tutt­lin­gen, Germany, is consis­t­ently pursuing its global growth strategy.

The name HSTEC stands for High Speed Tech­ni­que, for system compe­tence in the deve­lo­p­ment, design and manu­fac­ture of high-speed motor spind­les for deman­ding machi­ning opera­ti­ons. Clam­ping devices for machine tools and auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons complete the port­fo­lio. In addi­tion, HSTEC is a leader in spindle services and repair for its own products and other manu­fac­tu­r­ers’ spindles.

With this acqui­si­tion, the CHIRON Group expands its capa­ci­ties and streng­thens three areas of exper­tise: the holi­stic deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion and assem­bly of the key compon­ents motor spind­les and turning spind­les for the Group’s machi­ning centers. Turn­key projects can be even better desi­gned accor­ding to custo­mer speci­fi­ca­ti­ons with HSTEC’s work­hol­ding fixtures. In addi­tion, the CHIRON Group supple­ments its services world­wide with the area of repair, over­haul and opti­miza­tion of all motor spind­les in exis­ting machines.

With the future CHIRON Croa­tia, the CHIRON Group is present in Eastern Europe with another company of its own, can serve custo­mers in the region even better and will succes­si­vely deve­lop the loca­tion in Zadar. The more than 100 employees, 25 of them in engi­nee­ring alone, increase the number of Group employees world­wide to around 1,900.
The previous CEO, Mladen Šarlija, will serve as Mana­ging Direc­tor of CHIRON Croa­tia in the future. HSTEC’s agen­cies in Germany, the USA and China will remain in place, as will the repre­sen­ta­tive offices of Balluff, Bosch Rexroth, Hofmann and Mitutoyo for the Croa­tian market.
HSTEC will be contin­ued as a brand and will join the CHIRON Group brand network: CHIRON, STAMA, FACTORY5, CMS, GREIDENWEIS, HSTEC.

The role of Proven­tis Partners
Proven­tis Part­ners, toge­ther with Inter­Ca­pi­tal as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor, compre­hen­si­vely supported HSTEC in all phases of the prepa­ra­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of the tran­sac­tion in the DACH region. In addi­tion to the imple­men­ta­tion of a struc­tu­red sales process, the consul­ting services included the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and approach of poten­tial inves­tors as well as support in the due dili­gence and nego­tia­tion of the tran­sac­tion. This tran­sac­tion enab­led Proven­tis Part­ners to once again demons­trate its exper­tise in the auto­ma­tion, services in produc­tion and digi­tal solu­ti­ons segment. The tran­sac­tion was led by Dr. Axel Deich (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Munich) at Proven­tis Partners.

The role of InterCapital
Inter­Ca­pi­tal, toge­ther with Proven­tis Part­ners, acted as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor to HSTEC, provi­ding compre­hen­sive support in all phases of the prepa­ra­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of the tran­sac­tion. In addi­tion to the imple­men­ta­tion of a struc­tu­red sales process, the consul­ting services included the prepa­ra­tion of marke­ting and tran­sac­tion docu­ments, iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and approa­ching of poten­tial inves­tors as well as support in the due dili­gence and nego­tia­tion of the tran­sac­tion. The tran­sac­tion team at Inter­Ca­pi­tal consis­ted of Andrej Erja­vec, Filip Džanko and Petra Mucić.

About HSTEC

HSTEC is a system part­ner for inno­va­tive spindle drive tech­no­logy for CNC machine tools, for fixtures and for spindle services and repair. The name HSTEC stands for High Speed Tech­ni­que, for system compe­tence in the deve­lo­p­ment, design and manu­fac­ture of high-speed motor spind­les for deman­ding machi­ning opera­ti­ons. Clam­ping devices for machine tools and auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons complete the port­fo­lio. In addi­tion, HSTEC is a leader in spindle services and repair for its own products and other manu­fac­tu­r­ers’ spindles.

HSTEC employs over 100 people, 25 of whom work in engi­nee­ring alone. The company has agen­cies in Germany, USA and China and is the repre­sen­ta­tive of Balluff, Bosch Rexroth, Hofmann and Mitutoyo for the Croa­tian market. www.hstec.hr

About the CHIRON Group
The CHIRON Group, head­quar­te­red in Tutt­lin­gen, Germany, is a specia­list for CNC-control­led verti­cal milling and milling-turning machi­ning centers as well as turn­key and auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons. Compre­hen­sive services, digi­tal solu­ti­ons and products for addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring complete the port­fo­lio. The Group has a global presence with produc­tion and deve­lo­p­ment sites, sales and service bran­ches, and commer­cial agen­cies. Around two thirds of the machi­nes and solu­ti­ons sold are expor­ted. Key user indus­tries are the auto­mo­tive indus­try, mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, medi­cal and precis­ion engi­nee­ring, aero­space and tool manufacturing.

The CHIRON Group carries the brands CHIRON, STAMA and FACTORY5 for new machi­nes, GREIDENWEIS for auto­ma­tion, CMS for machine over­hauls and HSTEC for motor spind­les and fixtures. The machi­ning centers from CHIRON stand for the highest dyna­mics and precis­ion. STAMA focu­ses on stabi­lity and complete machi­ning, while FACTORY5 focu­ses on high-speed machi­ning of micro-engi­nee­red compon­ents. GREIDENWEIS is a system part­ner for indi­vi­dual, inte­gra­ted auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons, CMS offers comple­tely over­hau­led machi­nes of the group. HSTEC specia­li­zes in the manu­fac­tu­ring and repair of high speed motor spind­les and fixtures. Products and solu­ti­ons for addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring comple­ment the core compe­ten­cies of the CHIRON Group.
Further infor­ma­tion about the CHIRON Group can be found at https://chiron-group.com/de.

About Proven­tis Partners
Proven­tis Part­ners is a part­ner-led M&A advi­sory firm whose clients include a majo­rity of mid-sized family busi­nesses, corpo­rate subsi­dia­ries and private equity funds. With more than 30 M&A advi­sors, Proven­tis Part­ners is one of the largest inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancies in the German-spea­king region and looks back on more than 20 years of M&A expe­ri­ence and well over 300 comple­ted tran­sac­tions. The M&A consul­tants with offices in Düssel­dorf, Hamburg, Munich and Zurich are active in the sectors Indus­tri­als & Chemi­cals, Busi­ness Services, Consu­mer & Retail, TMT, Health­Care and Energy & Sustaina­bi­lity. Exclu­sive member­ship in Mergers Alli­ance — an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner­ship of leading M&A specia­lists — enables Proven­tis Part­ners to assist clients in 30 count­ries in key markets world­wide. The members of the Mergers Alli­ance, with its more than 200 M&A profes­sio­nals, provide Proven­tis Part­ners and thus its clients with unique access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa. With 116 successfully comple­ted tran­sac­tions tota­ling appro­xi­m­ately $4.5 billion in 2021, Mergers Alli­ance is one of the world’s most successful finan­cial advi­sors in tran­sac­tions up to $500 million. www.proventis.com

About Inter­Ca­pi­tal
Inter­Ca­pi­tal is the leading inde­pen­dent advi­sor for the support, struc­tu­ring and execu­tion of M&A and capi­tal markets tran­sac­tions in the SEE region. Inter­Ca­pi­tal supports a wide range of inter­na­tio­nal and dome­stic corpo­rate and insti­tu­tio­nal clients with stra­te­gic and finan­cial advice and smooth tran­sac­tion execu­tion. Their exper­tise is based on their compre­hen­sive under­stan­ding of the regio­nal markets, their speci­fic indus­try know­ledge and their expe­ri­ence from nume­rous corpo­rate finance projects in which they have been invol­ved. https://inter.capital/