ThyssenKrupp is selling the VDM group to Lindsay Goldberg, represented in Europe by Lindsay Goldberg Vogel, Düsseldorf. The contract partners concluded a corresponding agreement today. The purchase price has not been disclosed. Completion of the sale is subject to the approval of the supervisory boards and the competent antitrust authorities.

On completion of the transaction, ThyssenKrupp will achieve a positive effect on net financial debt and pension obligations in the mid three-digit million euro range. The sale will also reduce the share of volatile materials businesses and thus support ThyssenKrupp on its Strategic Way Forward to becoming a diversified industrial group. The transaction will result in a book value adjustment of around € 100 million.

As part of the necessary refinancing measures at Outokumpu, all shares in VDM and AST were transferred to ThyssenKrupp at the end of February 2014. Comprehensive new business plans have been developed for VDM and AST over the past few months. ThyssenKrupp always emphasized that it did not intend to retain the two companies in the Group in the medium to long term. In Lindsay Goldberg an investor has been found who will push on with the already initiated restructuring and realignment of VDM.

The VDM group is based in Werdohl and employs around 2,000 people worldwide.

ThyssenKrupp is a diversified industrial group with traditional strengths in materials and a growing share of capital goods and services businesses. Around 155,000 employees in nearly 80 countries work with passion and technological expertise to develop high-quality products and intelligent industrial processes and services for sustainable progress. Their skills and commitment are the basis of our success. In fiscal year 2013/2014 ThyssenKrupp generated sales of around €41 billion.
With our engineering expertise in the areas Mechanical, Plant and Materials we enable our customers to gain an edge in the global market and manufacture innovative products in a cost- and resource-friendly way. For us, technical progress and innovations, allied with the combined strength of the Group, are key factors enabling us to follow the development trends on the global sales markets, grow on the markets of the future, and generate strong and stable earnings, cash flows and value growth.