Sheetfed Holdings Limited (SFHL), the vehicle which acquired the sheetfed division of German printing press builder, manroland AG in February last year, has today published it's IFRS Annual Report & Accounts for the period ended 31st December 2012.

For the 11 month trading period SFHL, which consolidates 47 companies around the world that comprise the manroland sheetfed Group, recorded revenues of €346.4 and pre-tax profits of €72.4 million. Net assets at the year-end were €81.4 million and net cash €46.4 million.

To download SFHL IFRS Annual Report & Accounts click here (pdf).

The Accounts show that the sheetfed business and assets excluding German properties were acquired last February for €55 million in cash. The deal was funded by Langley Holdings PLC, whose property arm acquired the press builder's headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Offenbach and other properties in Germany for €21.8 million in a separate transaction.

Langley Holdings PLC reported a non-recurring gain of €25.2 million arising from the property deal in its 2012 Annual Report & Accounts published last month, which contributed to its pre-tax profit of €121.3 million. Langley's property arm has subsequently purchased the freeholds to manroland operating properties in the US, Italy and Belgium and plans to acquire freeholds to other outposts in 2013.

The SFHL vehicle is currently owned by the British industrialist Tony Langley, who is also the sole shareholder of Langley Holdings PLC. It is planned to absorb the press builder into Langley Holdings PLC later this year and when the merger is completed the group will employ around 4000 people and have annual revenues close to €1 billion euros.

Since being acquired, manroland sheetfed has been transformed from a heavily loss-making business into a viable stand-alone concern. The press builder will be the third under-performing German engineering business to have been acquired by Langley over the last 10 years. Langley's other German divisions now consistently out-perform the German VDMA machinery producers index.

Langley Holdings PLC was established by its eponymous owner in 1975 and is yet to sell a business it has acquired. The group remains debt free and net assets on completion of the merger will be in the region of €480 million with net cash around €260 million. Philip Beresford, compiler of the British Sunday Times' Rich List, estimates the group to be worth in excess of €1 billion, although as a publicly  listed company says this would be substantially more considering current P/E's in the sector.