Oerlikon sells Tape and Monofilament Technologies to Starlinger

Remscheid  / Chemnitz, Germany / Pfäffikon, Schwyz, Switzerland – May 24, 2018 – Oerlikon  announced today that the company will continue to align their Manmade Fibers  Segment product portfolio with the future of innovative Industry 4.0 plant  solutions putting greater focus on their core business of filament, staple  fiber and nonwovens. As a result, the corporate group will divest their  technology solutions for tape and monofilament plants. The Austrian Starlinger  Group based in Vienna will take over the German business unit from Chemnitz –  also known under the brand name ‘Barmag Spinnzwirn’. The purchase contract was  signed accordingly by both companies this week. The final closing is planned  for the end of the third quarter of this year. Both parties have agreed to not  disclose the purchase price.

Over the last decades, ‘Barmag Spinnzwirn‘ has been successfully established in the market as a technology-trendsetter. The Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment unit provides their extrusion plants for the production of tape and monofilaments for polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyamides (PA) und polyester (PET) as turnkey plant-design solutions. Another market success for the Chemnitz branch of the German parent company Oerlikon Textile GmbH & Co. KG, Remscheid, were the recently launched automatic winders, WinTape and WinTape XXL as well as the EvoTape process for film extrusion lines. The technologies for selected high speed winders and precision winders for special applications like aramid or carbon will be sold to Starlinger as well. The business unit has a very solid international customer base with long-standing successful relationships. In 2015, a new, innovative technology centre for R&D and the performance of customer experiments was put into operation. The Chemnitz site currently employs about 160 members of staff.

“We are divesting our tape and monofilament technologies as well as our site in Chemnitz as we are convinced that ‘Barmag Spinnzwirn’ will be develop even better through a broader market access and through more synergies under the new owner as this is medium- and long-term possible within our segment environment. We will focus within our core business of filament, staple fiber and nonwovens plants with automated Industry 4.0 solutions in order to continue to actively shape the future of our company and the manmade fibers industry,” explains Georg Stausberg, CEO of the Manmade Fibers Segment. “In the Austrian company Starlinger, we have found a buyer for our business unit in Chemnitz, who – as a worldwide leading supplier of plants for the production of woven plastic sacks, plastic recycling and refinement – has excellent access to the market and can thus continue to successfully develop the ‘Barmag Spinnzwirn‘ business. We have decided, to also hand over the brand name to guarantee a smooth transition,” Stausberg elaborates.

Angelika Huemer, Managing Partner of Starlinger & Co. GmbH, explains: "We are pleased to be able to make a promising and attractive addition to our product portfolio with 'Barmag Spinnzwirn', a very interesting and attractive option for the customers of the Starlinger Group. The resulting synergies in technical as well as commercial terms will underpin our leading position in the world of textile packaging and its applications and lead to new, innovative and customer oriented solutions in the medium-term. We intend to strengthen the production site Chemnitz further, the employees of the 'Barmag Spinnzwirn' we warmly welcome in our ‘Starlinger family’”.

Caption: Angelika Huemer, Managing Partner of Starlinger & Co. GmbH, and Georg Stausberg, CEO of the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment.

About Oerlikon

Oerlikon (SIX: OERL) engineers materials, equipment and surfaces and provides expert services to enable customers to have high-performance products, and systems with extended lifespans. Drawing on its key technological competencies and strong financial foundation, the Group is sustaining mid-term growth by executing three strategic drivers: addressing attractive growth markets, securing structural growth, and expanding through targeted mergers and acquisitions (M&A). A leading global technology and engineering Group, Oerlikon operates its business in three Segments – Surface Solutions, Manmade Fibers, and Drive Systems – and has a global footprint of approximately 15,000 employees at 186 locations in 37 countries. In 2017, Oerlikon generated CHF 2.8 billion in sales and invested CHF 107 million in research and development (R&D).

For further information: www.oerlikon.com

About the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers  segment

With its Oerlikon Barmag and Oerlikon Neumag brands, Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment is the world market leader for manmade fiber filament spinning systems, texturing machines, BCF systems, staple fiber systems, solutions for the production of nonwovens and – as a service provider – offers engineering solutions for the entire textile value added chain.

As a future oriented company, the research and development at this division of the Oerlikon Group is driven by energy-efficiency and sustainable technologies (e-save). With the continuous polycondensation and extrusion line systems and their key components, the company caters to the entire process with automated and digitally networked Industry solutions – from the monomer all the way through to the textured yarn.

The primary markets for the product portfolio of Oerlikon Barmag are in Asia, especially in China, India and Turkey, and – for the ones of Oerlikon Neumag – in the USA, Asia, Turkey and Europe. Worldwide the segment – with just under 3,000 employees – has a presence in 120 countries of production, sales and distribution and service organizations. At the R&D centers in Remscheid, Neumünster (Germany) and Suzhou (China), highly-qualified engineers, technologists and technicians develop innovative and technologically-leading products for tomorrow’s world.

For further information: www.oerlikon.com\manmade-fibers

About Starlinger

Starlinger is a Vienna-based engineering company with production sites in Weissenbach and St. Martin, Austria, as well as Taicang, China. As the world’s leading supplier of machinery and complete lines for woven plastic bag production, plastic recycling lines, and rPET sheet extrusion and refinement lines, Starlinger & Co. Ges.m.b.H. is a synonym for leadership in quality and technology in over 130 countries. Founded in 1835, the family-owned business has been exporting machines worldwide for more than 45 years with an export quota of over 99.5 %. Sales and service centres in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, USA and Uzbekistan ensure quick and professional technical support and service.