The Hilco Organization Expands its European Operation
US-based Hilco Organization has added another division to its highly successful European operation with the introduction of Hilco Industrial Europe.
Since establishing a European presence in 2000, Hilco’s most high profile venture has been its retail restructuring operation Hilco UK, which has been involved in a series of household name deals including the trade out of Littlewoods, advising on the disposal of Allders as well as the restructure of Ciro Citterio and part of the Karstadt Group in Germany.
Hilco’s newest European division, Hilco Industrial Europe, will consolidate existing activity in the industrial acquisition and disposals market as well as providing a host of synergies with its expert appraisal group – Hilco Appraisal Europe.
The team at Hilco Industrial Europe has a combined 50 years of experience in maximising the monetary value of surplus capital equipment and inventory and a particular expertise in the electronics & telecoms, food & beverage and automotive sectors.
John Moore, who was most recently with DoveBid and previously with Henry Butcher, will head the new team at Hilco Industrial Europe, which will focus on asset acquisitions, negotiated sales, tenders and auctions.
John’s recent experience includes major plant disposals across Europe including Grolsch, Scottish Courage, Carlsberg, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and Chivas Brothers, as they rationalised, updated technology or shifted manufacturing bases to lower labour cost locations.
Talking about the launch of Hilco Industrial Europe, Moore commented: “This is an exciting time for both Hilco clients and the Hilco team”
“There are huge synergies between the disposal work Hilco undertake and Hilco’s existing asset appraisal and retail restructuring businesses. Hilco Industrial Europe is a natural extension of the organisation as it continues to expand its Europe-based operations.”
“The work we undertake at Hilco Industrial is about delivering the best financial returns for our clients – be that working with the client direct, providing appraisals for asset-based lenders or working with insolvency practitioners to recover the maximum value from the capital assets of a troubled business.”
“At Hilco Industrial, we pride ourselves on assisting clients to economically restructure and/or upgrade their manufacturing processes and systems to take account of new technologies or in relocating manufacturing activity to areas of greater efficiencies.”
“In many instances what we do can be likened to recycling as huge quantities of industrial plant are given a new lease of life in emerging markets across the globe.”
The new Hilco Industrial Europe team also includes Business Development and Client Relations specialist Taffy Gutu, Daniel Gray who previously advised clients such as Ford Motor Group, Tyco and Motorola, Greg Zaharewicz who specialises in technology industry disposals and marketeer Ben Massey.
Meanwhile, Hilco Appraisal Europe’s activities continue across the continent. One recent undertaking of Hilco Appraisal Europe combined the expertise of both its UK arm and teams from the US in preparing a global valuation for Exide Batteries’ operations in the UK, France, Spain and Germany.
For further information contact Hilco Industrial Europe, +44 (0) 20 7614 7711
Hilco Industrial Powers $48 Million Sale of Electric Generators For Calpine
$25 Million Sold On-line Could Be World Record
Several weeks ago, you received information about an auction to be conducted by Hilco Industrial for Calpine Corp., the California-based power generation company. Happily, we can report that the auction results were great. Here's the scoop.
The auction, which was held in Las Vegas on November 16, 2006, brought $48 million in sales. Among the 130 lots auctioned were eight unused turbine and generator sets, each of which is capable of generating from 45 megawatts to 180 megawatts of power. Ancillary plant equipment was also sold.
Calpine, which filed for bankruptcy last year, sold the equipment as part of an overall review of assets that the company is undergoing as part of its bankruptcy restructuring. The sale was ordered by the bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York. Law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, is debtor counsel and Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC, is providing financial advisory to Calpine in the bankruptcy process.
Hilco Industrial's simultaneous on-site and on-line auction strategy garnered the $48 million result. Approximately $25 million was generated by on-line buyers from around the world who participated using Hilco’s HilCast® webcast auction technology. This is believed to be a world record for industrial equipment sold via an on-line auction according to Hilco Industrial CEO Robert Levy.
“In all my years,” says Levy, “I have never seen larger online bids for specific pieces of industrial equipment. We had $10 million bids for generator sets and some bidders took multiple units.”
In order to assure a truly level playing field for Internet bidders, who were competing with bidders at the Las Vegas auction site, Hilco employed its Hilcast® conversational webcast technology. As in any traditional theater-style auction, on-site bidders view each item being auctioned on a large video projection screen while an auctioneer asks for and calls-out bids to the seated audience. The Hilcast® auction system provides on-line bidders with the same images via a conventional web browser, but they hear and can communicate in real time with the auctioneer and on-site audience over a high-quality international telephone line.
The use of voice communications via a live phone line eliminates the need for on-line bidders to type-in their bids, which can cause time delays and the potential for missed bids. Using Hilco’s technology, on-line participants are able to engage in the same open outcry bidding process as on-site bidders.
In order to attract as many qualified bidders as possible, Hilco executed a multifaceted international marketing campaign about 60 days in advance of the auction date. "At one point," says Levy, "we were fielding 200 calls per day from interested parties."
To qualify as a bidder, prospective buyers had to pass certain financial tests and meet other government-imposed requirements. Each bidder was then required to register with Hilco Industrial and submit a deposit reflecting the amount they expected to bid for certain items. Generator set bidders were required to submit a deposit of at least $1 million. There were 36 such bidders. “We set the requirement bar quite high for all bidders,” observed Levy. “We wanted to be absolutely certain that all bidders were serious buyers and that every bid received was legitimate. After all, unused 180 megawatt generator sets are not your typical auction item.”
Past News Articles:
January 26, 2006
THE ASSET DISAGGREGATION STRATEGY: A METHOD TO FACILITATE MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS (from the January 2006 edition of Mergers & Acquisitions Magazine)
October 21, 2005
GERMAN PROPERTY DEAL OF THE YEAR - KARSTADT / HILCO / DAWNAY DAY
August 23, 2005:
HILCO & DAWNAY, DAY GROUP COMPLETE THE ACQUISITION OF 74 DEPARTMENT STORES IN GERMANY FROM KARSTADTQUELLE AG
May 6, 2004:
ROBERT LEVY JOINS HILCO INDUSTRIAL AS PRESIDENT