History

2010

Expansion of market position in Switzerland
With its January 2010 acquisition of the sustainably profitable company Bläsi AG, Klöckner & Co resumed the acquisition strategy that it had temporarily suspended on account of the global financial and economic crisis – and further expanded its market position in Switzerland.

Largest acquisition since IPO
On March 1, 2010, Klöckner & Co’s Management Board announced that it had successfully completed its largest acquisition since the IPO. Through its acquisition of the Becker Stahl-Service Group, Klöckner & Co significantly strengthened its position in the flat steel and processing segment and took another major step toward creating a higher value-added, higher-margin and more stable product portfolio.

New strategy
Klöckner & Co’s strategy has remained largely unchanged since the IPO. Some four years later, the upheavals from the financial crisis and the associated macroeconomic changes made it necessary to adjust the strategy. As a result, in October 2010, the Group introduced its new “Klöckner & Co 2020” growth strategy. The optimized strategy is based on four lines of attack: external growth, organic growth, business optimization and personnel and management development. “Klöckner & Co 2020” thus highlights prospects and guidelines for the next ten years and underlines the Company’s intention to assume a global market leadership position. The first visible successes of the strategy were seen in the acquisitions of Angeles Welding and Lake Steel. The acquisition of Lake Steel, a Texas-based steel distributor, strengthened
Klöckner & Co's American segment while expanding its presence in the south-central region of the USA.

2011Acquisition of Macsteel Service Centers USA
The next acquisition followed at the beginning of 2011. On April 29, 2011, after conducting a successful due diligence process and receiving all anti-trust approvals, Klöckner & Co took over Macsteel – one of the leading flat steel service center companies in the USA – thereby completing the biggest acquisition in the Company’s recent history. The acquisition meets all the requirements of the “Klöckner & Co 2020” strategy: Macsteel operates in the significantly more stable, higher value-added steel service center segment; moreover, it serves less volatile and more value added customer sectors. Thanks to the Macsteel acquisition, Klöckner & Co now has a top-3 position in the USA, as it does in all the European markets in which it operates.

Entry into emerging markets
Another goal elucidated in the “Klöckner & Co 2020” strategy – that of entering emerging markets – has also been accomplished with the May 6, 2011 takeover of Frefer, Brazil’s third-largest independent steel and metal distributor.

Successful placement of capital increase
In June 2011, Klöckner & Co carried out a capital increase in order to ensure its ability to take advantage of future growth opportunities while maintaining a solid financial and balance sheet. The Group issued 33,250,000 new non-par-value shares, which yielded net proceeds of approximately €516 million that will be used primarily to continue pursuing the “Klöckner & Co 2020” growth strategy. Klöckner & Co SE’s fifth regular Annual General Meeting was held a few days before the secondary offering. The Annual General Meeting elected Hauke Stars, the Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard (Schweiz) GmbH, to the Supervisory Board by a large majority. This is the first time in the Group's history that a woman has been elected to the Supervisory Board.

New Member of the Board for Americas
Effective October 1, William A. Partalis, former CEO of Namasco and CEO of Klöckner USA Holding, has been appointed to the Management Board of the
Klöckner & Co SE. He represents the Americas' segment on the Board. In addition, he is still responsible for managing the American business operations.

Opening of first steel service center in China
In late 2011, Kloeckner Metals, a subsidiary of Klöckner & Co, opened the Group's first Chinese steel service center, in Changshu. As part of the "Klöckner & Co 2020" growth strategy, the entry onto the Chinese market is an important step. Kloeckner Metals' product focus is initially on heavy plates for machinery and mechanical engineers. The plan is to expand the product range in 2012 to include round steel bars and other products for machinery and mechanical engineering. From a logistical perspective, the new steel service center is ideally situated. Shanghai, close by, and the neighboring provinces of Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui represent around 40% of all Chinese steel consumption. In addition, a large number of European companies have settled in in the surrounding area – the potential for customers and sales is accordingly high. After Kloeckner Metals is successfully established on the Chinese market, Klöckner & Co expects an annual turnover of between 40 and 50 Tto.