Brown Gibbons Lang & Company Closes Another Intercontinental Deal

Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (“BGL”) today announced that the De’ Longhi Group of Treviso, Italy has sold 100% of the shares of the controlled company Elba SpA to Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd. (“FPA”) of Auckland, New Zealand for €78 million.  FPA, listed on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges, designs, manufactures and markets a range of innovative household (white goods) appliances including cookware, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers and refrigerators.

Elba manufactures branded high-end cooking appliances and related components with total revenues of €83.9 million at an EBITDA margin of more than 11%.  This acquisition provides FPA with a platform to achieve significant presence in Europe while pursuing its aggressive external growth strategy further to the U.S. investment in DCS Appliances in 2004.

BGL, together with its Italian Global M&A partner, Cross Border, marketed Elba to private equity groups and motivated European and other international industrial players.

“The sale of Elba to FPA represents one of the highest profile deals in the appliance industry in years,” said Jay Greyson, director at BGL and lead banker on the deal.  “BGL has once again demonstrated its ability to capture a premium valuation for a client by seamlessly executing a global marketing process. Our cross-border transaction process has proven highly successful for public companies such as the De’ Longhi Group as well as for private business owners.”

Chairman of BGL and Global M&A, Michael Gibbons adds, “Global M&A is designed to provide our clients with access to the industrialized economies of the world.   This is one of dozens of cross-border collaborative efforts that have proven successful for our clients in recent years.”

About Elba SpA

Based in Bassano, Italy, Elba has been part of the De’ Longhi Group since 1987.  The Company develops, manufactures and markets a wide range of high-end semi professional stainless steel cooking appliances.  Elba exports innovative “made in Italy” design products to over 50 countries worldwide with a relevant presence in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.  Historically selling under the “Elba” brand, the Company achieved strong growth by exploiting and leveraging the “De’ Longhi” and “Kenwood” brands for cookware.

About Global M&A

Global M&A is the world’s leading partnership of top-tier independent financial advisory firms focusing on mid-market cross-border transactions with values between $25 and $500 million. The Global M&A partnership consists of 28 members in financial centers spanning the globe. Members have completed more than 700 transactions with an aggregate deal value exceeding $18 billion since 2000. Global M&A was named 2005 Investment Bank of the Year by The M&A Advisor, a leading publication dedicated to middle market merger and acquisition activity. For more information, please visit www.globalma.com.