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Technology Stocks : Safeguard Scientifics SFE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ray Dopkins who wrote (1033)	1/14/1998 5:13:00 AM
From: Ray Dopkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4467

Schimmelbusch Looks Ahead With Safeguard Fund Venture By BRANDON MITCHENER Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL FRANKFURT -- Heinz Schimmelbusch, the businessman who presided over the near-bankruptcy of Metallgesellschaft AG, has returned to Germany as an investor in much the same kind of companies he dealt with before. As one of the managing directors of Safeguard International Fund LP, Mr. Schimmelbusch is on the prowl for German high-tech companies in basic materials and process industries. On Tuesday, they found one. Mr. Schimmelbusch said the fund acquired a controlling stake in ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH, a small German engineering company specializing in using vacuum technology in industrial applications. Mr. Schimmelbusch also is a co-managing director of the company. No financial details of the deal were disclosed. "Our focus is not so much on buying a company and helping it cut costs as helping it with a strategic vision, connecting it with similar companies in the U.S. and taking it public in both the U.S. and Germany," Mr. Schimmelbusch told a news conference. "The past is the past, we're talking about the future," he added, when asked about the similarity between his current plans and his former activities at Metallgesellschaft, a constantly shifting conglomerate of engineering companies. Mr. Schimmelbusch was dismissed as chairman of Metallgesellschaft after the company was caught off-guard by big oil-trading losses at a U.S. subsidiary in December 1993. Investors and creditors initiated a 3.2 billion mark ($1.76 billion) bailout and restructuring involving scores of spin-offs. Mr. Schimmelbusch blamed the disaster on the company's bankers, arguing that the risky investments would have paid off if creditors had been willing to extend new lines of credit. Safeguard International's investors include Bankers Trust and the pension funds of Bell Atlantic and the state of Michigan. The fund's founder, Safeguard Scientifics Inc., which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is also an investor. The fund hopes to buy five to 10 companies over the next two to three years, mostly in Germany, put them in touch with potential partners in the U.S. and elsewhere and eventually take them public. Mr. Schimmelbusch said the fund intends to acquire 100% of ALD by the end of the year, find it a partner in the U.S. that could help it diversify beyond its current design-center status, and eventually take it public. ALD was created over the past few years by spin-offs from Degussa AG and Heraeus Holding GmbH. Among other areas, Mr. Schimmelbusch forecast a bright future for ALD in battery recycling using vacuum chambers that prevent harmful substances from leaking into the atmosphere. In 1997, ALD had sales of 150 million marks and was solidly profitable despite heavy investment spending, according to Mr. Schimmelbusch.