Stamford, Conn., November 23, 2005 - - Esselte Group Holdings AB
(publ), a leading global office supplies company, today announced the
completion of the divestiture of its Dymo labeling business to Newell
Rubbermaid, a global marketer of consumer and commercial products, for
approximately $730 million.
“After taking Esselte private in July 2002, we invested heavily in the
Dymo business through personnel, advertising and accelerated product
development.” said Magnus Nicolin, president and CEO of Esselte. “The
sale of DYMO is validation that our strategy for building value was
solid.”
The divestiture of the Dymo business will allow Esselte to pay off
substantially all of its current debt and concentrate on its remaining
core business of organization and presentation solutions, such as
filing, desktop and binding and lamination products.
In addition, Esselte intends to increase its investment in Xyron, a
leading marketer of proprietary hobby and craft products to fully
leverage this rapidly growing market.
“With the opportunity to accelerate innovation further and with renewed
focus on our core business of organizational solutions and craft
products, I am excited about our prospects for the future,” stated
Nicolin.
In connection with the completion of the divestiture of its Dymo
labeling business, Esselte is calling for redemption its outstanding
7.625% senior notes due in 2011, in accordance with Article III of the
note indenture.
About Esselte
Esselte, with executive offices in Stamford, Conn., USA, is the leading
global office supplies manufacturer with annual sales of approximately
USD 1 billion, subsidiaries in 33 countries and approximately 5,000
employees worldwide. The company develops innovative solutions that
simplify the modern home and workplace. Esselte sells more than 20,000
different office & craft products in over 120 countries; its principal
brands include Esselte, Leitz, Oxford, Pendaflex and Xyron. More
information about Esselte can be found by visiting www.esselte.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain information contained in this news release may constitute
“forward-looking” statements, which are all statements other than those
of historical fact and include, without limitation, statements relating
to our financial position, business strategy, plans to increase revenue,
other future events or prospects, plans to devote significant management
time and capital resources to our business strategy, and other
statements of expectations, beliefs, future plans and strategies,
anticipated developments and other matters that are not historical facts
concerning our industry, our business, operations and financial
performance and condition. The words “believes”, “seeks”, “anticipates”,
“plans”, “expects”, “intends”, “estimates”, “will”, “may”, “could” and
other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors that, in some cases, are beyond
our control. These risks, uncertainties, and factors may cause our
actual results, performance and achievements, or industry results and
market trends, to be materially different from any future results,
performance, achievements or trends expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements (and from past results, performances or
achievements). Important risks, uncertainties and other factors that
could cause our actual results to differ materially from historical
results or those anticipated include, but are not limited to: our
substantial leverage and our ability to meet our debt service
obligations; our ability to comply with the restrictive financial
covenants and financial ratios in our senior credit facility; our
ability to maintain our margins of profitability and market share;
pricing of raw materials and supplies, including recent price increases
by suppliers and the uncertainty of our ability to pass these costs on
to our customers; our ability to achieve cost savings from our
restructuring programs; general economic conditions, trends in GDP,
white-collar employment levels and continued growth of small businesses
and home offices; increased use of electronic filing; our ability to
maintain our relationships with our major customers, especially given
that our industry is concentrated in a small number of customers; our
exposure to currency fluctuations; changes in the level of demand for
our products; and other risks identified under “Risk Factors” in reports
provided to holders of our 7⅝% senior notes due 2011. These risks and
others described under “Risk Factors” are not exhaustive. There are
additional factors that could adversely affect our business, financial
condition or results of operations. Given these risks and uncertainties,
undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements or our
past results as a prediction of actual results.
All forward-looking statements included in this release are based on
information available to us on the date of this release and we undertake
no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement.
