Corporate lawyers advise Austrian traffic technology group, SWARCO, on acquisition

Corporate lawyers at Walker Morris have advised Austrian traffic technology group, SWARCO AG, on its acquisition of HITEX Group.

Under the terms of the agreement Swarco will acquire 100% of the share of the family-owned HITEX Holdings Limited for an undisclosed sum.

The HITEX Group, whose origins date back to 1972 when road marking contractor L&R Roadlines Ltd. was founded, is based in Ellesmere Port at the banks of River Mersey south of Liverpool.

The companies of the group work in the field of road safety, being a producer of road marking materials and decorative surfacing products (HITEX Traffic Safety), a contractor for road marking services (L&R Roadlines), and a manufacturer of road marking vehicles and machinery (Somerford Equipment).

John Hamer, Head of Corporate at Walker Morris led the deal with support from Will Proctor, (Corporate), Ryan Doodson (Commercial), Andrew Rayment, Dominic Mantle and Samantha Paulin (Employment), Andrew Northage, Claire Burrows, Jessica Padget (Regulatory), Adam Reed (Real Estate), Ruth Bamforth (Pensions), Alan Harper and Matt Lingard (Intellectual Property & Trade Marks).

SWARCO Speaker of the Board and COO Michael Schuch:
“With the HITEX acquisition, we follow our course of seeking market opportunities with companies that are a good fit for us by having strong know-how in their field, a good market penetration, a high reputation, and the background of a family ownership with a corporate culture similar to ours. The HITEX companies will give us direct access to the road marking systems sector in the UK, helping us to gain a significant market share by introducing our five-decade long expertise in road safety materials.”

Harald Mosböck, SWARCO’s Vice President for Road Marking Systems in Europe and the APMEA regions, sees great potential in developing road safety with high performance road markings in Europe’s second largest economy.

“The HITEX Group is very well established in the UK road safety sector and will open the market for SWARCO’s top products such as SWARCO SOLIDPLUS beads and 2-component MMA systems. Together we will be able to offer a new level of high performance road marking systems and give a boost to the driving quality and safety on Britain’s road network.”

The HITEX Group employs a total staff of 130 and generates annual revenues of roughly 27 million EUR.