The Drumet story-from bankruptcy to acquisition by a strategic investor
In the course of the past four years, Drumet, a Polish producer of steel wire, has gone through an interesting series of ownership changes. Starting from a joint-stock company, its enterprise was moved to a limited-liability company, which then entered bankruptcy, where the trustee sold the business to an investment fund, which later resold the company to a strategic investor.
In July 2011, after several stormy years, Drumet, one of the oldest producers of steel wire in Poland, originally founded in 1895 in Włocławek and now operating in the form of a limited-liability company, was sold by the CEE investment group Penta Investments to a strategic investor, WireCo World Group.
From 1994 to 2008, Drumet operated in the form of a joint-stock company called Fabryka Lin i Drutu Drumet SA. In 2008 an organised part of its enterprise, including the production plant, was contributed to a subsidiary of the joint-stock company, a limited-liability company known as Pozmet sp. z o.o. (which later changed its name to Fabryka Lin i Drutu Drumet sp. z o.o.) Due to financial problems in the group and the inability of the owners at that time to find an investor, the parent company was declared bankrupt in December 2008, and the subsidiary followed in April 2009. The bankruptcy court ordered a liquidating bankruptcy of both companies and the sale of their assets.
Within the liquidation proceeding, an organised part of the enterprise of Fabryka Lin i Drutu Drumet sp. z o.o. was put up for sale by tender. Although several companies were interested in buying it, finally only one company, a member of the Penta Investments group registered in Cyprus, submitted an offer. After confirmation of the offer, the Cyprus company assigned its rights to a Polish subsidiary, which in July 2007 conducted the acquisition of the enterprise, with the PLN 120 million purchase price payable in instalments through the end of 2014. To secure payment of the purchase price, registered pledges and mortgages on the assets were established for the bankruptcy trustee.
The acquirer changed the name of the company to Drumet Liny i Druty sp. z o.o. and continued the operations of the Drumet plant. The acquirer also purchased a German company in the Drumet group from the trustee and established new distribution subsidiaries in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
By the end of 2010, Penta Investments had begun to seek a potential buyer for the company. After several months of negotiations and approval from the president of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, in July 2011 a Polish SPV established by WireCo World Group acquired 100% of the shares in Drumet Liny i Druty sp. z o.o., subject to the debt to the bankruptcy trustee and the encumbrances placed on its assets.