BHS Tabletop : Management Board at BHS tabletop AG welcomes new involvement of the Serafin Group

Management Board at BHS tabletop AG welcomes new involvement of the Serafin Group

Selb / Munich, 24 March 2017.

The majority shareholders of the BHS tabletop AG (securities identification number 610200) have sold their shares. The BHS Verwaltungs Aktiengesellschaft, a company associated with the Serafin Group, is taking over the blocks of shares from the shareholders Munich Re, Deutsche Bank, the WMF Group and other shareholders and will therefore become the new majority shareholder of BHS tabletop AG.

The Management Board at BHS expressly welcomes the new involvement of the Serafin Group. 'This solution favoured by the Management Board is very much forward looking for the company and its employees,' emphasises the CEO of BHS, Christian Strootmann. 'We are very confident that this new owner, with their focus on the long term, will accompany our strategic course in a positive manner just like the majority shareholders before.' In recent years, BHS had developed from a pure porcelain manufacturer to an adaptable and innovation-driven supplier of tabletop solutions in all market segments relating to the foodservice industry.

'BHS tabletop has a successful business model, a strong market position and combines Bavarian industrial tradition with an impressive service and logistics concept operating worldwide,' says Philipp Haindl, managing director of the Serafin Group, explaining the reason for acquiring the majority of the shares. 'We are pleased to become part of this porcelain tradition.'

On 25 April 2016, the three majority shareholders, Munich Re, Deutsche Bank and the WMF Group, announced that they were checking strategic options for their holdings in BHS tabletop AG, including a possible sale of their shares.

Despite difficult general market circumstances and increasing political and economic risks, such as the unforeseeable consequences of the Brexit decision and impending restrictions to world trade among other things, BHS tabletop unerringly continued its course for growth during the past financial year and recorded further sales increases both in the domestic market and internationally.

Sales thus increased during the past financial year from EUR 114.2 million by EUR 6.8 million to EUR 121.0 million (+6.0 per cent). The operating result (EBIT) rose from EUR

5.5 million by 3.6 per cent to EUR 5.7 million.

Serafin is a diversified group of companies based in Munich whose philosophy goes back to the 150-year entrepreneurial tradition of the owner family. Following the guiding principle 'Responsibility out of tradition', the companies in the Group currently generate sales of EUR 500 million with 2,900 employees. The development of Serafin is supported by the expertise of its advisers, Prof. Bernd Gottschalk, Wolfgang Ley and Prof. Heinrich von Pierer.

www.serafinogruppe.de

For more information about BHS tabletop AG: Frank Schroedter, Engel & Zimmermann AG

Unternehmensberatung für Kommunikation, 82131 Gauting Tel.: +49 (0)89 8935 633, Fax: +49 (0)89 893 563 550

Email:info@engel-zimmermann.de