GF closes divestment of GF Machining Solutions
On 30 June 2025, GF completed the divestment of its GF Machining Solutions division to United Grinding Group. The successful closing of this divestment transaction marks an important milestone in GF’s transformation journey to become the global leader in Flow Solutions. The transaction increases GF’s strategic flexibility to pursue further growth and value generating investments in Flow Solutions for Industry, Infrastructure and Buildings.
The agreed purchase price on a cash and debt-free basis is CHF 630 million. Annual sales to be carved out from GF amounted to CHF 885 million in 2024. Approximately 3,300 employees and production sites in eight locations across Europe, Asia and the US will transfer to the buyer as part of the transaction.
GF is an international industrial and publicly listed corporation with its headquarter in Schaffhausen (Switzerland). GF is active in the fields of piping systems, building flow solutions, casting solutions and machining solutions. The divestment of the machine-tool business is part of GF’s new strategic focus on Water and Flow Solutions and increases GF’s strategic flexibility to pursue further growth as well as value-generating investments in these strategic fields.
United Grinding Group, whose origin dates back about 100 years, is a global leader in grinding technology and employs more than 2000 employees globally. The majority shareholder of United Grinding is Patinex AG, a Swiss holding company wholly owned by Martin and Rosmarie Ebner. Together, GF Machining Solutions and United Grinding will combine forces to form the leader in ultra-precision machining.
The NKF team was co-led by Transactions partners Andrea Giger and Philip Spoerlé and further comprised senior associates Katalin Siklosi and Julia Tolstova, associate Lorenzo Henseler and partner Ulysses von Salis (all Transactions), partner Thomas Hochstrasser (Commercial), associate Manuel Hirlinger and junior associates Manuel Constam, Norina Frey, Nina Lötscher and Selim Tisli (all Transactions), partner Adrian Koller and associate Carlotta Ulmer (both Financing), partners Thomas Graf, Marcel Meier, Daniela Schmucki and Morgan Boeffard, senior associate Sven Kälin and associate Michel Herren (all Tax), partner Fabiano Menghini and associate Noémie Amman (both Real Estate), partner Nicolas Birkhäuser and associate Lukas Poschung (both Antitrust/FDI), as well as partner Daniel Eisele and counsel Livia Keller (Commercial/Employment).
NKF is supported by multi-jurisdictional teams of White & Case LLP led by Gernot Wagner, Rebecca Emory, Stefan Bressler and Fabian Mayer (all Frankfurt) and the teams of Dentons in Vietnam and Taiwan.