MWS Group expands its technology portfolio and takes over activities and employees of the insolvent automotive supplier MGG Herzogenburg.
The MWS industrial holding, which is majority owned by Invest AG and Raiffeisen OÖ Invest GmbH - two investment companies belonging to the Raiffeisenbankengruppe OÖ - is taking over the main assets of the insolvent MGG Herzogenburg GmbH, including around 160 employees, into a newly founded holding company as part of an asset deal. It will operate under the name MWS Niederdruckguss GmbH and will be 80% owned by the MWS Group and 20% by the current managing director Markus Kieberger.
MWS is a company specializing in aluminum casting and CNC machining, whose three operational locations in Austria and Slovakia produce highly complex, ready-to-install aluminum parts using sand casting and gravity die casting processes. The new location in Herzogenburg is focused on low-pressure die casting and thus represents a suitable strategic expansion of the technology and product range. Low-pressure die casting is a manufacturing process for light metal castings with particularly high requirements for strength, elongation, pressure tightness and weldability. The transaction is mainly financed by the Raiffeisen Group Upper Austria.
Markus Kieberger, managing partner of MWS Niederdruckguss GmbH, is optimistic: “The takeover of MGG Herzogenburg offers us the opportunity to further expand our technological know-how and consolidate our market position. By integrating it into the MWS Group, we can secure jobs at the site and create the necessary synergies to lead the company into a successful future.”
Detlef Buchmann, managing partner of the MWS Group: “The technological expertise in Herzogenburg perfectly complements the portfolio of the MWS Group. With Markus Kieberger, we have an experienced expert as managing director and also co-owner who has known the site and the skills of the employees for a long time and stands for continuous development. This acquisition also underlines our decision in 2023 to bring Invest AG on board as a shareholder in order to be able to take advantage of all the opportunities arising from the current upheaval in the supplier industry."
Andreas Szigmund, CEO of Invest AG: "We at Invest AG are pleased to be part of the future of MWS Niederdruckguss through our financial support. This asset deal creates the basis for structural and personnel growth and offers considerable potential for the future development of the entire MWS Group. We see this investment as an excellent opportunity to further strengthen our investment strategy with a focus on medium-sized companies and site preservation."
About MGG Herzogenburg GmbH
MGG Herzogenburg GmbH is a traditional die-casting foundry based in Herzogenburg, Lower Austria, which has specialized in the production of complex aluminum castings using the low-pressure die-casting process since 1954. Founded by Georg Fischer, the company was spun off in 2014 as part of a management buyout and sold to the Dutch MGG Group in 2021. In January 2024, restructuring proceedings without self-administration were initiated over the assets of MGG Herzogenburg GmbH.
About the MWS Group
MWS is a company specializing in aluminum casting and CNC machining, which produces complex aluminum parts using sand casting and gravity die casting. The entire group, with its approximately 300 employees at the three locations in Klagenfurt and Ternberg/Steyr (Austria) and Hlinik/Hronom (Slovakia), generated annual sales of around €45 million. The core competencies include thin-walled, highly sophisticated casting, CNC machining of geometrically highly complex components and the "one-stop solution" for customers in the manufacture and delivery of ready-to-install parts (CAD design, prototyping, series production, pre-assembly). MWS' core segment is the automotive industry, which is characterized by an increasing use of light metal to reduce weight (fuel savings in combustion engines or range extension in electric motors). MWS also produces components for the rail transport, mechanical engineering and several other industrial applications.
About Invest AG
Invest AG is the leading Austrian private equity fund and specializes in the provision of equity, equity-like capital and mezzanine capital for companies of various sizes. With its evergreen fund structure, Invest AG has had a strong presence in Austria, the German market and Switzerland for almost 30 years and currently manages fund assets of around half a billion euros. The typical investment focus is on transactions of between 2 and 50 million euros as part of majority and minority transactions. With currently around 55 portfolio companies, an annual total portfolio turnover of around 13.5 billion euros and 127,000 jobs, Invest AG stands for long-term partnerships with companies in various industries in German-speaking countries.