Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG is looking to improve its market position in the growing packaging printing segment by taking its long-standing sales partnership with Masterwork Group Co., Ltd., China’s largest manufacturer of die-cutters and hot-foil embossing machines, to a new level.
 
Based in the Chinese city of Tianjin, Masterwork is to obtain approximately 8.5% of the Heidelberg share capital under a cash capital increase from authorized capital excluding shareholder subscription rights. The implementation of such capital measure is subject to approval by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG’s supervisory board.
 
The proposed capital increase provides the opportunity for Heidelberg to acquire a further strategic anchor shareholder with a long-term investment horizon as well as to strengthen its equity. Subject to approval by the relevant bodies on both sides and the Chinese authorities, the capital measure should provisionally take place by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2019.
 
The funds Heidelberg generates with the capital increase are to be used to accelerate its digital agenda (digitizing products, processes, and business models, for example) and for general business financing.
 
“The Heidelberg Management Board and Supervisory Board are delighted that our long-standing, successful collaboration with Masterwork is to become much closer. This opens up further potential in the growing packaging printing segment, especially in China – the world’s largest individual market,” said Heidelberg CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer.

Masterwork specializes in postpress equipment for the folding carton industry. Back in 2014, it acquired the postpress packaging technologies of Heidelberg, which retains responsibility for global sales and digital customer relations. The possibility of linking Masterwork’s postpress machines to the Heidelberg cloud is an advantage when it comes to realizing the value proposition of using production data to boost customers’ productivity.