GPV Aquires Swiss CCS Group

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Denmark’s largest EMS (electronics manufacturing services) company GPV, which is owned by the Danish industrial conglomerate Schouw & Co., will acquire the Swiss-based EMS company CCS. The transaction will lift GPV’s revenue by DKK 1.4 billion (EUR 190 million) to about DKK 2.6 billion (EUR 350 million) and place the company among the largest EMS companies in Europe.

The transaction creates a strong global EMS player with some 3,700 employees, production facilities in Asia, Europe and the Americas and a combined revenue of about DKK 2.6 billion. CCS is currently owned by a private equity fund advised by the Swiss Patrimonium.

Both companies have performed well in recent years. Where GPV grew to a revenue of almost DKK 1.2 billion in 2017 with an EBITDA of about DKK100 million, CCS is slightly larger with a 2017 revenue of DKK 1.4 billion and a similar profit. CCS and GPV employ 2,300 and 1,400 people, respectively, and both operate in the EMS segment with electronics, mechatronics, high precision mechanics and cable-harness as their core business areas.

“At the beginning of 2018, we announced a new and ambitious growth plan for GPV with a revenue target of DKK 2.5 billion by 2022. Things have evolved faster than we had expected, and now, we have signed an agreement to acquire CCS that will both allow us to meet our strategic ambition and to create an EMS leader in electronics focused on box-build and mechatronic products,” explains GPV CEO Bo Lybæk.

“We are very pleased to become part of GPV who we know as proficient and talented industry peers,” says CCS Group CEO Thomas Kaiser, and he continues: “At the same time, it is very important to us that GPV’s owner Schouw & Co is known for their strategic and long-term approach and that it has the financial strength to invest for growth and to further develop our business.”

A Stronger, Combined EMS Business in the High-Mix/Low Volume Segment

GPV and CCS have both successfully served the HMLV (high-mix/low-volume) segment of the EMS market. Both GPV and CCS provide electronics sub-assembly solutions and finished products (box-build) to their customers in high-mix and low-volume series, and demand for this type of electronics supplier is growing:

“GPV and CCS are quite similar in a number of ways. We both master service excellence and have highly flexible production set-ups, making us a strong partner for delivering the small and medium-sized series demanded by our customers. We see a big potential in staying focused on the HMLV segment,” continues GPV’s CEO Bo Lybæk.

“Together we will form an overall stronger EMS group: CCS has its own product design and engineering unit as well as cable-harness manufacturing specialising in cable customisation. GPV has a large department within test development, its own mechanics manufacturing capabilities and a presence in the Americas. Accordingly, the combined organisation will stand stronger in the value chain in both GPV and CCS markets.”

Today, most of GPV’s customers are headquartered in northern Europe, whereas most of CCS’ customers are based in the German-speaking parts of Europe. GPV has production facilities in Denmark, Mexico and Thailand, while CCS has production facilities in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Sri Lanka and China. GPV has long had a strategic goal of establishing a best-cost structure for its operations in continental Europe, and GPV and CCS clearly complement each other on three continents and in the most important best-cost regions.

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