Based in Bergamo, Italy, and established in the 1960s, Reggiani is a leading manufacturer of industrial inkjet printers using water-based inks printing on fabric. It will be rebranded EFI Reggiani and its staff of around 190 will all join California, US-headquartered EFI.
EFI will repay Reggiani debt of about €20.1m, pay former Reggiani shareholders around €27.4m in cash and around €27.4m in EFI stock, as part of the deal to buy all Reggiani company shares, announced yesterday (1 July).
A further €50m will be payable over a maximum of 30 months if EFI Reggiani hits revenue and profitability targets.
The growth in wide-format inkjet printing on textiles was by far the biggest talking point at Fespa 2015 in Cologne Germany in May.
EFI chief executive Guy Gecht said: "This acquisition gives EFI an immediate leadership position in one of the world's largest industries undergoing the transformation from analogue printing to digital.
"The addition of Reggiani's innovative team and their 'Made in Italy' textile printing technology, which is renowned worldwide, will drive continued growth in industrial textile, and also enable EFI's customers to expand into soft signage-based display graphics using Reggiani's water-based industrial inkjet printers."
Former Reggiani shareholder Ambrogio Caccia Dominioni, who will be the managing director of EFI Reggiani, said the new brand would become “a global leader in digital inkjet textile printing technology with leading-edge products that accelerate the analogue-to-digital transformation”.
"Reggiani's customers recognize that inkjet is the most important technology of the future for the textile industry. But I wanted our company to be part of EFI, not just because we will be joining a world-leading industrial inkjet technology company, but also because EFI is a leader in print industry workflow solutions and has a much larger sales and marketing platform around the world,” he said.
Meanwhile EFI also revealed its purchase of all Israeli company Matan’s shares yesterday, in a $29m all-cash deal. Around 70 employees have joined EFI, giving the once Israeli start-up a new presence in Israel.
Under the purchase agreement, EFI also assumed approximately $5m of Matan's debt, and deposited $14m into escrow.
Gecht said of the Matan deal: "This acquisition gives EFI an even broader range of products to help our customers capture important opportunities in superwide-format display graphics printing.
"Matan's strong R&D capability will further accelerate EFI's inkjet innovation, while filling a key spot in EFI's portfolio for a lower-acquisition cost line of roll-to-roll production printers focused on signage, banners, billboards and fleet graphics."
Former Matan president and chief executive Hanan Yosefi has moved to the role of president and general manager, EFI Inkjet Israel.
"Our technology and, most importantly, our customers have a great future ahead with EFI in terms of ongoing support and innovation," he said.
"The Matan team and I are excited to continue growing and innovating as part of one of the world's leading providers of industrial inkjet printing products."
Based in Rosh Ha'Ayin, Israel, Matan has developed digital printers and presses for more than a decade, aiming at high productivity, quality and durability but low cost of ownership.
Matan's focus on roll-to-roll workflow has resulted in one of the industry's strongest offerings of material-handling features such as in-line cutting and slitting.
EFI’s share price on the Nasdaq exchange ended the day yesterday on a slight drop of just over 1% at $42.93. It will reveal its Q2 and anticipated Q3 earnings on 21 July.
