ADB-TTV Technologies Management Buyout

In a management buy-out, Christian Léonard and Jean-François D’Haussy, respectively general manager and financial & administration manager of ADB-TTV France, strongly backed up by a group of private and institutional investors, have reached an agreement with Siemens for the acquisition of all the assets of ADB-TTV Technologies S.A., Belgium, including their two subsidiaries in France and Germany. Léonard and D’Haussy become respectively chief executive officer and chief financial officer of the new ADB-TTV group.

As part of the deal, the parties have agreed on transferring the production of all dimmers to the ultra modern facility of Siemens in Huizingen, near Brussels. The transfer has already started and should be completed in February.

Manufacture of control systems and TV studio suspensions will be relocated in the ADB-TTV’s factory in St Quentin, France, where all theatre and TV luminaires are produced. This facility is currently being expanded in order to provide extra capacity primarily for the new, widely acclaimed AXIS cool beam profile spotlight recently unveiled at the PLASA show in London and the LDI show in Las Vegas, and presented this week at the SIEL 2003 show in Paris

Both new manufacturing facilities are certified ISO 9000 and use state-of-the-art assembly technologies with very strict quality control. This move with the related investment is primarily aimed at boosting production efficiency and providing additional capacity in a professional industrial environment.

Marketing, Sales, Customer Service and R&D will remain in Zaventem in dedicated premises within the Siemens ADB Airfield Lighting operation.

The ADB-TTV sales units in France and Germany will be maintained, the management’s intention being to strengthen their project engineering capabilities. The French office has already been moved to new, more efficient premises in Malakoff, on the southwest belt of Paris.

Says Léonard, “I am thankful to the Siemens management for their co-operative and constructive attitude, which now makes it possible for ADB-TTV to gear up for a new start on a strong industrial and financial basis, whilst still maintaining close ties with Siemens. This, I am convinced, will prove beneficial to both parties and ultimately to our customers.”

Léonard concludes, “Whereas short term we want to streamline ADB-TTV, generate new motivations and encourage innovation, our longer term objective is to strengthen ADB-TTV’s position as a world class manufacturer of professional lighting equipment for the theatre and television industry.”

For further information, you can check out the ADB web site at: www.adb.be