OC Oerlikon

Swiss engineering company

OC Oerlikon is a listed technology group headquartered in Pfäffikon (Schwyz), Switzerland. The name "Oerlikon" (or "œrlikon", as the company styles itself according to its corporate identity) comes from the Oerlikon district in Zurich where the group has its origins. The roots of today's OC Oerlikon are to be found in , which was established in 1906 and evolved into Oerlikon Bührle Holding in 1973. Following an extensive restructuring process, the holding was renamed Unaxis at the start of 2000. The Austrian Victory Industriebeteiligung AG acquired a majority share in Unaxis in 2005. New management initiated a restructuring effort that manifested itself in a new name – OC Oerlikon – from the beginning of September 2005. At the end of 2006, the Saurer Group was acquired and integrated into OC Oerlikon. As of today, a position of around 41% is held by Liwet Holding AG, of which Victor Vekselberg is one of the beneficial owners.

The foundations for OC Oerlikon were laid when Oerlikon Bührle Holding AG was established in 1973. At its peak in 1980, the holding company had 37,000 employees. At the start of the 1980s, the group already had an aerospace division (set up in 1964 as part of Contraves AG) and a thin film/vacuum technology division, which it had had since 1976 when the company took over Balzers AG. Due to poor performance, in 1991 the group was forced to concentrate on certain divisions only. The decision was taken to restructure the company and focus exclusively on technology. This narrowing of the company's focus was driven by the 1994 takeover of the Leybold Group, a specialist in vacuum technology, which was merged with Balzers to form Balzers & Leybold, a leading company in thin film technology, which would later become Oerlikon Bührle's core business. The biggest turning point for the company came in 1999 with the sale of various core businesses and virtually all interests in other companies that no longer fitted Oerlikon's new business concept. The company sold its arms division, Oerlikon Contraves Defence, to the German Rheinmetall DeTec, where it now operates under the new name of Rheinmetall Air Defence AG. Oerlikon Bührle Immobilien AG was sold to Allreal Holding where it acquired its present name of Allreal Generalunternehmung AG. The shoe and accessories manufacturer Bally was sold to the US based Texas Pacific Group. Oerlikon Bührle was renamed Unaxis in January 2000.

In mid 2000, Unaxis acquired a majority share in the semiconductor manufacturer Esec AG. Toward the end of that year, it sold Pilatus Flugzeugwerke AG – the last company that did not fit in with the rest of Unaxis' technology portfolio. In December 2001, Unaxis spun off Leybold Optics once again, but retained the vacuum technology division. At the beginning of 2004, Unaxis was restructured into five Segments: Semiconductor Equipment, Data Storage Solutions, Coating Services, Vacuum Solutions and Components and Special Systems. A merger in March 2004 placed Esec entirely under the ownership of Unaxis. Poor performance in FY 2004 from the semiconductor division of Esec meant losses of CHF 372 million for Unaxis and a slump in its share price. The Esec business unit was eventually sold again in April 2009. In June 2005, Unaxis' new majority shareholder, the Austrian firm Victory Industriebeteiligung AG, called an extraordinary general meeting where it replaced virtually all of the group's management team. This also saw Thomas Limberger appointed as the new Unaxis CEO. The new management team succeeded in reducing losses massively in 2005, and expressed a desire to abandon the abstract company name "Unaxis" and bring back a well established company name from the past. In 2006, the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg acquired a substantial share in the company. At the annual general meeting in May 2006, a suggestion that "Oerlikon" – the name of the village where Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Oerlikon was founded – be used as part of the company's name was approved. Rheinmetall reacted strongly against the use of the abbreviation OC because of the potential confusion with its subsidiary Oerlikon Contraves, whose abbreviation is also OC. Unaxis was renamed Oerlikon – formally OC Oerlikon Corporation AG – with effect from the beginning of September 2006.

The renaming of Unaxis was delayed due to various objections from Rheinmetall and its subsidiaries. When Oerlikon Contraves was sold in 1999, the then Oerlikon Bührle secured the right to continue using the protected name Contraves (as in Contraves Space). Nothing was agreed regarding "Oerlikon", however, since it is the name of an actual location – Oerlikon was a village that became a district of Zurich in 1934 – and so appears in the names of several dozen companies. For these reasons, for legal purposes the company "Oerlikon" officially refers to itself as OC Oerlikon Corporation, and has only trademarked the new Oerlikon wordmark and logo. At the beginning of September 2006, the media started referring to the company primarily as "Unaxis Oerlikon". OC Oerlikon Corporation AG was successfully entered in the commercial register in March 2006 (before the company had started operating under that name) and the renaming of Unaxis Management AG to OC Oerlikon Management AG was entered in the commercial register in May 2006. All disputes regarding company names were settled in the third quarter of 2006, and in September 2006, Unaxis Holding AG was officially renamed OC Oerlikon Corporation AG. In December of that year, Unaxis Schweiz AG (formerly Esec SA) was renamed Oerlikon Assembly Equipment AG.

The investment firm Laxey attempted to replace the management of the textile machine manufacturer Saurer AG at an extraordinary general meeting, but the attempt was thwarted at an early stage. This was due to negative reporting in the media and the subsequent surprise intervention of Victory Industriebeteiligung and OC Oerlikon, at that time only a few days old. Oerlikon acquired Laxey's entire share package. With Oerlikon now holding a majority share in Saurer, the obligatory takeover bid was made to the remaining Saurer shareholders.

In 2008 and 2009, the group suffered the full force of the recession that followed in the wake of the global financial and economic crisis. Demand and sales dropped substantially, particularly in the Textile Segment, but also in the company's other Segments. Hans Ziegler was appointed as interim CEO to undertake a major restructuring of the group. According to Oerlikon's Annual Report 2009, more than 2 500 employees were laid off in 2009, and the workforce declined by a further 1 100 as a result of companies being sold off. A comprehensive restructuring of the group's finances was also necessary. Following lengthy negotiations, an agreement was reached with Oerlikon's main shareholder, Renova, and the lending banks, which was approved by the company's shareholders at the annual general meeting on May 18, 2010. The key points of the recapitalization were a reduction in equity capital through a par value reduction from CHF 20 to CHF 1, followed by a capital increase with a subscription right offer and the issue of options for shareholders. CHF 125 million of the company's debts were erased and an old credit facility was replaced with a new contract for three tranches totaling CHF 1.48 billion. The recapitalization resulted in a reduction in debt of CHF 998 million and liquid assets of CHF 276 million for the group.

On November 22, 2011, the group reorganized its largest and most important Segment, the Textile Segment, combining the existing five business units into three: Manmade Fibers (formerly Oerlikon Barmag and Oerlikon Neumag), Natural Fibers (formerly Oerlikon Schlafhorst and Oerlikon Saurer) and Textile Components (formerly Oerlikon Textile Components). In the course of this reorganization process, the Segment's upper management was gradually relocated to Shanghai, and hence to the world's largest textile market. The new CEO of the Segment, Clement Woon, is from Singapore. On December 3, 2012, Oerlikon announced that it was selling two business units from its Textile Segment – Natural Fibers and Textile Components – to the Chinese Jinsheng Group. The sale of the Natural Fibers business unit was finalized on July 4, 2013. Within textile machinery construction, the group plans to concentrate in the future on production machinery for manmade fibers. At the beginning of 2014, OC Oerlikon acquired Sulzer Metco from Sulzer AG. On November 20, 2015, Oerlikon announced its intention to sell its Vacuum Segment to Atlas Copco. The transaction was closed on August 31, 2016. In July 2018, Oerlikon announced that it was selling its Drive Systems Segment to Dana Inc. The sale was finalized on February 28, 2019.