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Gerry Schwartz, CEO of Onex Corp.J.P. Moczulski/The Canadian Press

Canadian private equity company Onex Corp. has clinched a deal to buy German plastics machinery maker KraussMaffei Technologies GmbH, two sources close to the transaction said on Tuesday."The deal is about to be signed" one of the sources said, declining to give financial details.

Onex beat out a Chinese machinery group in the bidding for KraussMaffei Technologies, which is owned by private equity group Madison Capital.

KraussMaffei Technologies has common roots with defence group Krauss-Maffei Wegmann but today is an independent company.

Madison Capital, advised by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., hoped to fetch as much as €700-million ($907-million U.S.) in the sale, sources close to the transaction had said earlier this month.

KraussMaffei, with a work force of about 4,000 people, generated sales of just over €900-million and a profit in its financial year 2010-11 ending in September.

It traces its roots to a locomotives maker in 1838. The company later specialized in defence products and spun off its plastics technology into a separate unit, which in 1992 became a part of steel group Mannesmann.

After the breakup of Mannesmann in 2000, the Krauss-Maffei plastics and rubber machinery operations became part of a joint venture of Siemens AG and KKR & Co. LP. Madison Capital acquired the business in 2006.

In 2008, plans to list KraussMaffei on the stock exchange had been scrapped.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment, KraussMaffei Technologies, Madison and Onex were not immediately available for comment.

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