MANN+HUMMEL, key filtration technologies
Amid a growing awareness of the importance of tackling air and water pollution – especially at an industrial scale – MANN+HUMMEL has evolved from a traditional automotive supplier to a technology company focusing on providing a broad portfolio of innovative filtration solutions that separate the useful from the harmful for an increasingly diverse range of sectors.
Remaining a family-owned company since it was founded in 1941 in southwest Germany to manufacture fabric filters, primarily for the automotive industry, MANN+HUMMEL now sells 120,000 different products, enabling its customers to provide cleaner mobility, cleaner air, cleaner water and a cleaner industry. With more than 22,000 employees worldwide, MANN+HUMMEL generated sales of €4.8 billion in 2022.
For those who move the world: MANN+HUMMEL & BNP Paribas
Founded in Germany in 1941, MANN+HUMMEL develops innovative filtration solutions for cleaner air and water and a healthier environment. By separating what is useful from the harmful, this filtration technology contributes to a cleaner planet and the sustainable use of its limited resources.
A major turning point came in the 2010s when MANN+HUMMEL decided to intensively look beyond the automotive industry and transfer its core competency of producing cutting edge filtration and separation solutions to additional industries to provide solutions for air and water filtration. About the same time, MANN+HUMMEL’s relationship with BNP Paribas began. Since then, BNP Paribas has contributed to the company’s strategic shift by supporting diversification into new markets and technologies, playing a pivotal role in financing key acquisitions.
MANN+HUMMEL has evolved from a traditional automotive supplier to a technology company focusing on providing a broad portfolio of innovative filtration solutions.
Green financing solutions
“What we have done is start to think about how to reflect this transformation towards sustainability in the company’s financing,” says Sascha Fink, Senior Relationship Banker at BNP Paribas, highlighting its support with MANN+HUMMEL’s issuance of the automotive industry’s first green promissory note for €400 million in 2017. “All of the company’s financing now has some kind of ESG component,” he adds, pointing to BNP Paribas’s role as coordinator and bookrunner in the placement of a syndicated revolving credit facility for €800 million in 2022.
“That was an important milestone,” says Fink, explaining that the terms were tied to the company's ESG rating, through its EcoVadis score – when it improves, the cost of the loan lowers. With this transaction, BNP Paribas effectively became MANN+HUMMEL’s lead bank, as well as being a top three bank for cash management services in major economies across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The 2022 loan was aimed primarily at financing the expansion of MANN+HUMMEL’s Life Sciences & Environment (LS&E) segment. The LS&E division focuses on filtration and separation solutions that enable customers to provide cleaner air and cleaner water to make better use of scarce resources. In 2022, LS&E represented approximately 10% of MANN+HUMMEL’s sales; by 2028 the aim is to grow that to about 25%, partly through further acquisitions.
By expanding its filtration and membrane technical expertise to cleaner air and water solutions, MANN+HUMMEL has opened the door to a wide range of other industries around the world. The aim was to develop intelligent filtration solutions enabling cleaner mobility, cleaner air, cleaner water, and cleaner industry, to address pressing global challenges such as climate change, pollution and pandemics.
To accelerate exposure to water and air filtration, from 2015 MANN+HUMMEL enlisted BNP Paribas’s help in order to start acquiring companies in the sector. Today, customers for the LS&E division include sectors such as electronics, pharmaceuticals, hospitality, airports, hospitals, schools and public authorities.
By expanding its filtration and membrane technical expertise to cleaner air and water solutions, MANN+HUMMEL has opened the door to a wide range of other industries around the world.
The dire consequences of poor air and water quality
MANN+HUMMEL’s strategic shift coincided with a growing understanding globally of the dire consequences for human health of poor air and water quality: air pollution causes almost 7 million premature deaths each year, according to the WHO, while less than 3% of the planet’s water is drinkable, with water pollution and droughts constantly wreaking havoc around the world.
