Aktuelles › Super­vi­sory Board decis­i­ons on CEO Dr. Ste­fan Trae­ger and start of VINCORION sales process

Dr. Ste­fan Trae­ger to remain Chair­man of the Exe­cu­tive Board.

In its extra­or­di­nary mee­ting on July 29, 2019, the Super­vi­sory Board of JENOPTIK AG con­firmed CEO Dr. Ste­fan Trae­ger in office and appro­ved the start of a struc­tu­red sales pro­cess for the mecha­tro­nics divi­sion VINCORION.

Fol­lo­wing his cur­rent appoint­ment, which runs until June 2020, Dr. Ste­fan Trae­ger will remain Chair­man of the Exe­cu­tive Board of the Jen­op­tik Group for a fur­ther five years. The 51-year-old was con­firmed in office by the Super­vi­sory Board of JENOPTIK AG. He joi­ned Jen­op­tik in the spring of 2017. “Over the last few years, under the manage­ment of Dr. Ste­fan Trae­ger, Jen­op­tik suc­cee­ded in com­bi­ning the Group’s trans­for­ma­tion into a tech­no­logy group focu­sed on pho­to­nics with pro­fi­ta­ble growth and suc­cessful acqui­si­ti­ons. Con­ti­nuity in the Group’s manage­ment by Dr. Trae­ger and CFO Hans-Die­ter Schu­ma­cher crea­tes the basis to con­se­quently pur­sue the laun­ched stra­tegy for more growth and pro­fi­ta­bi­lity”, says Mat­thias Wier­la­cher, Chair­man of the Super­vi­sory Board of JENOPTIK AG. 

Since 2017 Dr. Ste­fan Trae­ger and Hans-Die­ter Schu­ma­cher have tog­e­ther initia­ted and imple­men­ted the company’s stra­te­gic rea­lignment and focu­sing under the motto “More Light”. This includes a new mar­ket-ori­en­ted orga­niza­tio­nal and manage­ment struc­ture, as well as mea­su­res to boost inno­va­tion and increase glo­bal reach. These have signi­fi­cantly impro­ved the company’s inter­na­tio­nal mar­ket pre­sence and trans­pa­rency within the Group. In the last two years, key acqui­si­ti­ons were suc­cessfully com­ple­ted and new record figu­res were achie­ved in reve­nue, order intake, and earnings.

Sales pro­cess for VINCORION mecha­tro­nics busi­ness started

With the launch of the pro­ject, the Jen­op­tik Exe­cu­tive and Super­vi­sory Boards are now start­ing a new phase of the company’s trans­for­ma­tion in order to pur­sue an active port­fo­lio policy and streng­then the busi­ness focus on the com­pe­ten­cies in optics and pho­to­nics. On the basis of the stra­te­gic course adopted, the manage­ment is con­side­ring the poten­tial sale of all shares in the VINCORION divi­sion, which runs the Group’s mecha­tro­nics busi­ness. “Having obtai­ned the appr­oval of the Super­vi­sory Board and com­ple­ted the neces­sary pre­pa­ra­tory work, we can now start the pro­ject,” says Ste­fan Trae­ger, Chair­man of the Exe­cu­tive Board at JENOPTIK AG.

The pro­ceeds from the poten­tial sale of VINCORION will be used to expand the company’s inter­na­tio­nal reach and ver­ti­cal inte­gra­tion, par­ti­cu­larly in the stra­te­gic growth regi­ons of the Ame­ri­cas and Asia. “We want to opti­mize the pro­duct port­fo­lio and gain access to new cus­to­mers and mar­kets through bolt-on and trans­for­ma­tory acqui­si­ti­ons,” says Ste­fan Trae­ger, adding that “the mecha­tro­nics busi­ness ope­ra­ted under the brand name of VINCORION will then have the chance to grow suc­cessfully with a new owner.”

One of Jenoptik’s stra­te­gic mea­su­res car­ried out in the 2018 fis­cal year invol­ved the reor­ga­niza­tion of the busi­ness struc­ture within the Group. In this con­text, func­tions and respon­si­bi­li­ties pre­viously cen­tra­li­zed in the hol­ding com­pany were also trans­fer­red back to the then Defense & Civil Sys­tems seg­ment in order to ensure its auto­no­mous busi­ness ope­ra­ti­ons. The new VINCORION brand for the mecha­tro­nics busi­ness was laun­ched in the fall of 2018. On the intro­duc­tion of the new divi­sion struc­ture in early 2019, the pho­to­nics busi­ness in the for­mer Defense & Civil Sys­tems seg­ment was trans­fer­red to Jenoptik’s new Light & Optics division.

Today, VINCORION has posi­tio­ned its­elf as a spe­cia­list for cus­tom solu­ti­ons in chal­len­ging, strictly regu­la­ted mar­kets. With a pro­duct range ser­ving the mili­tary, avia­tion, and rail indus­tries, some 790 employees gene­ra­ted reve­nue of 166 mil­lion euros in 2018. Over the past fis­cal year, the mecha­tro­nics busi­ness thus con­tri­bu­ted around 20 per­cent to the reve­nue gene­ra­ted in the Jen­op­tik Group.

Jen­op­tik is being advi­sed on the struc­tu­red sales pro­cess by inter­na­tio­nal invest­ment bank Houli­han Lokey and law firm White & Case.

Pic­tures are available for down­load from the Jen­op­tik image data­base in the “Jen­op­tik / Exe­cu­tive Board” gallery.

About Jen­op­tik 

Jen­op­tik is a glo­bally ope­ra­ting tech­no­logy group. Opti­cal tech­no­lo­gies are the very basis of our busi­ness with the majo­rity of our pro­ducts and ser­vices being pro­vi­ded to the pho­to­nics mar­ket. Our key tar­get mar­kets pri­ma­rily include the semi­con­duc­tor equip­ment indus­try, the medi­cal tech­no­logy, auto­mo­tive and mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, traf­fic, avia­tion as well as the secu­rity and defense tech­no­logy indus­tries. Jen­op­tik has about 4,000 employees worldwide.

Cont­act

Kat­rin Lauterbach
JENOPTIK AG
Head of Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons & Marketing
+49 3641 65–2255
moc.kitponej@hcabretual.nirtak