Atanas Bobokov, Board chairman, Monbat (Photo credit: capital.bg)

Leading lead acid car batteries producer Monbat plans to triple EBITDA by 2021 to EUR 68.9m from FY2016 level, the Company’s management said at an investors’ day on September 27th 2017 in Sofia.

Monbat is looking into scaling up the business by 2021 via organic growth, expansion with acquisitions in its organic business, recycling diversification and entering the Li-Ion technology solution.

In FY2016 EBITDA added 18.3% to EUR 22.5 m on rising volumes and favorable LME environment.

Monbat vision

By 2021, the Company plans to add:

• EUR 12.4m in EBITDA from current organic business
• EUR 22.7m in EBITDA from scaling up the organic business via group synergies and acquiring a vertically integrated lead acid batteries producer ASSAD in Tunis as well as lead acid recycling plant Piombifera Italiana S.p.A in Brescia, Italy
• EUR 4.2m in EBITDA from diversifying its recycling operations by adding tin and antimony extraction from lead recycling as well as batteries separator recycling
• EUR 8m in EBITDA from focused product diversification into high-power Li-Ion batteries with the acquisition of GAIA and EAS, Germany; Monbat to focus on the Lithium Iron Phosphate based high power batteries with industrial and hybrid application, targeting energy storage, industrial, aerospace, rail and bus transport industries

Expansion

Building on the above scaling Monbat plans to expand into Africa, Russia and Ukraine. The Tunisian acquisition target ASSAD is a market leading in Tunis, with potential for 15% market share in Algeria and is present in other South African countries.

It is also present in Europe, with about 20% of sales going to Western Europe that would add to Monbat’s presence on the Old Continent. ASSAD’s acquisition price is due to be settle after the ongoing due diligence process if finalized.

At the end of June 2017, at Monbat’s annual shareholders meeting, shareholders approved the Company to issue up to EUR 30m in corporate bonds with the sole purpose of acquisition in the Company’s organic line of business. The proceeds from such an issue will probably be used for ASSAD and Piombifera’s acquisitions.

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