Press releases

 

Munich, July 17, 2006

AURELIUS takes over Richard Scherpe Group / a leading specialist printer in card and adhesive labels

Munich-based industrial holding AURELIUS AG (ISIN: DE000A0JK2A8) has acquired all the shares in Richard Scherpe Group through its 100% subsidiary AURELIUS Media Holding GmbH. Scherpe is a manufacturer of special print applications. Scherpe has been manufacturing forms, labels and special packaging for more than 70 years. A source of great pride in this company, with its plants in Krefeld, Düren and Norderstedt near Hamburg, is its special products such as the label for Reber's Mozart Ball pralines, made using the hot gold-film embossing process and the voting cards for the shareholders' meetings of leading DAX companies.

Richard Scherpe (64), managing partner of Scherpe Group, will withdraw from the operative business in the months to come, after 40 years of outstanding and successful work for the company. He will, however, remain on call to the company in a consulting capacity. Richard Scherpe said of the transaction: "I am happy to have found AURELIUS as the new investor. This means that Richard Scherpe Group is ideally set up for the future“.

The highly profitable special printer Scherpe generated € 14 million in sales last year and occupies 91 employees. More than 80% of the industrial employees are trained printers.

The company was acquired in accordance with the AURELIUS business philosophy. In Scherpe, AURELIUS also acquires three lots of real property with a total of around 15,000 m2. The AURELIUS Task Force, a specialist team of operative experts, will go to work on this project in the very near future.

"We have acquired an extremely innovative special printing company in Richard Scherpe Group“, says AURELIUS AG CEO, Dr. Dirk Markus. "We will now make the company's technical leadership available to an even larger range of customers through further growth.“

The management board of AURELIUS plans further acquisitions in 2006.

AURELIUS AG, Munich (www.aureliusinvest.de) acquires mid-cap companies and corporate spin-offs which are no longer part of the core business of the previous owner. AURELIUS also acquires companies in difficult and complex situations and actively grows and develops them. Using its own specialized Task Force, AURELIUS increases the value of its investments to the benefit of all parties, with great awareness of its social responsibility. The shares of AURELIUS AG trade under AR4 (ISIN: DE000A0JK2A8) on the Open Market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Contact

AURELIUS AG
Investor Relations & Corporate Communication
Matthias L. Schneck
Phone +49 (0) 89 5447 99-0
investor(at)aureliusinvest.de