The Hymer family, owners of the German motorhome maker Hymer, announced plans for the company’s future back in March, which included offering an IPO or, as an alternative, seeking the involvement of a strategic partner. Hymer’s owners have received offers from four suitors, including Thor, and could make a decision about a sale in the next couple of weeks. A sale could be worth about 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion), Bloomberg reports. Hymer’s owners may opt, instead, for a Frankfurt initial public offering (IPO) as early as next year if talks fail, reports RV News.
In an initial public offering, the company could be valued at 2.5 billion euros to 3 billion euros, or about 10 times its expected earnings before interest, taxes, amortization and depreciation for 2019, Bloomberg reports.
A Hymer spokeswoman said its owners are running a dual-track process and considering all options, without commenting further. Representatives for Thor declined to comment.
Thor may have an advantage over its private equity rivals since so-called strategic bidders are generally able to run operations more efficiently and can justify higher bids. Thor has a strong U.S. presence and little overlap with Europe-focused Hymer, making a potential acquisition complementary, one of the people told Bloomberg.
I own a 2010 Roadtrek which was well built and has given me good service for eight years. Roadtrek was bought by Hymer a couple of years ago but I have not seen any comments (I belong to a large Roadtrek club) about quality problems since. Now it appears that the company may be acquired by Thor, which has a very bad reputation for quality. I hope it doesn’t go through, I’d hate to see a good company go down the tubes.
Amen. We shopped for a decade before retirement. Got a 2014 Roadtrek Ranger. NO problems at all for 4 1/2 years. Roadtrek family must be sick about Hymer courting Thor!