The Die Welt Interview With Alfred Schopf

[johnbuckley]

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La Vida Leica today brings us highlights from the interview published, I believe today, in Die Welt in which Leica CEO Alfred Schopf confirms new S and X offerings at photokina. (See: Schopf: Japanese Shooting Themselves in Knee | La Vida Leica!)

 

But though it is highly amusing for an English-speaker to read the Google Translate version of what Mr. Schopf has to say -- a lot gets lost in translation! -- there is a tantalizing piece at the end that references the Kaufmann/Blackstone ownership structure.

 

As I try to piece it together, I believe he is saying that at some point in medium run, Blackstone will wish to exit their 45% ownership of Leica. Which would lead one to believe that, having taken the company private a few years ago, Dr. K will wish to have an IPO, take the company public, pay off Blackstone, and either sell some more of the company to investors or have a higher valuation of his shares. But the way Google garbles it, he could also be saying that Dr. Kaufmann would wish to sell at some point.

 

I believe in this sentence "the investor" is Blackstone: "But surely this investor wants to get out in the medium term." But it is unclear.

 

Would any of our German-speaking friends on the Forum wish to help us understand what Schopf said about the ownership structure? I am hoping his reference was to Blackstone exiting sometime, which I believe most likely means an IPO with the Kaufmann interests still the dominant/controlling shareholders.

[johnbuckley]

Here is a link to the article in Die Welt: Fotokameras: Leica ist erfolgreicher als asiatische Rivalen - Nachrichten Wirtschaft - Webwelt & Technik - DIE WELT

[jaapv]

It is very clear he means Blackstoke. His previous sentences refer to Blackstoke and he says THIS investor.

[Hakku]

It is quite obvious that Mr. Schopf speaks about Blackstone.

 

He indicates that Blackstone is well "in the money" and that they already made a good profit for this package of shares. Consequently, this implies that they will sell the moment when no further increase in value can be expected or when another investor is ready to pay a still higher (strategic) price. Question is, who might be interested?

 

I don't believe in the idea of an IPO. Mr. Kaufmann could have gone that route instead of selling to Blackstone, keeping the increase in value (which could be expected in view of the successful development of Leica at that time) for his own holding company. We may assume that there is another strategy behind the curtain.

 

H.

[johnbuckley]

Got it. Alas, for those opposed to IPOs, there are few instances when one private equity firm sells it's stake to another PE firm -- the usual next step is to spin it off as a shareholder-owned company. But we shall see.