Koramic Chemicals&Ceramics, one of Europe's leading multinational manufacturers of ceramics and construction chemicals, has signed a letter of intent for the purchase of 14Ora Italiana, a trend-setting producer of luxury ceramic floor and wall tiles, headquartered in Castelvetro in the province of Modena.
With the due diligence and audit now successfully completed, Koramic Chemicals&Ceramics will take possession of a majority stake in 14Ora Italiana under a capital increase subscribed by its Italian subsidiary Petracer's Ceramics, another renowned manufacturer of luxury floor and wall tiles and bathroom furnishings - for total turnover of approximately 9 million euros - which the Belgian group acquired in 2013.
The acquisition of 14Ora Italiana, a relatively young company that has achieved outstanding results (generating revenues of around 5 million euros and exporting its products worldwide),
represents another step in the building of an all-Italian luxury hub, something which Graziano Verdi - Chairman and Managing Director of the multinational group since April 2013 - is very keen to do. In 2014, Petracer's Ceramics also acquired a majority stake in "Toscane et Tradition", an exclusive ceramic boutique in Rue D'Aboukir in the heart of Paris, five minutes from the Palais Royale, the Louvre Museum and Place Vendome, with a view to promoting Italian luxury products to Parisian architects and designers.
So in September, Petracer's supplied the ceramics for the remodelling of "Negresco" in Nice, one of the world's most prestigious hotels, and then signed an agreement for the renovation of the private villa (wall tiles and sanitaryware) of a member of the Qatari royal family, for a value of approximately 1 million euros.
Koramic Chemicals&Ceramics intends to develop and expand its business further, on an international scale, with a luxury "floor tiles, wall tiles and sanitaryware hub".
Koramic Chemicals&Ceramics Group - with consolidated turnover of almost one billion euros and about 500 million euros of its own resources - is majority-owned by Christian Dumolin, a well known financier and former Vice-Chairman of the Bank of Belgium.
In the ceramic floor and wall tiles sector, the multinational Koramic Chemicals & Ceramics owns Desvres and Sphinx, as well as Petracer's, but also owns several companies that manufacture chemical products for the building industry, such as Cermix France, Cermix Switzerland and Cermix Turkey. It also owns Resiplast, which has headquarters in Belgium and the United States (the new HQ opened in October 2013) and specialises in the production of latest-generation resin flooring and in structural work in support of architectural projects.
But the Koramic Chemicals & Ceramics Group's full portfolio includes a whole array of companies, which employ a total of over 2,500 people, operate manufacturing facilities worldwide and have interests in business sectors as diverse as property, finance, textiles, telecommunications, plastics processing and metallurgy. >
Pictured: Graziano Verdi, President and CEO of Koramic Group
