By Nicky Redl
FRANKFURT--Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG (SI) confirmed
Wednesday that it has agreed to sell part of its water technologies
unit for 640 million euros ($865 million) to New York private
equity firm AEA Investors LP.
Siemens Water Technologies Business unit, part of Siemens
overall water operations, offers solutions for municipal and
industrial water purification and wastewater treatment and service
activities. The company said it will now focus on "its
water-related activities on automation and drive solutions for the
operation of water and sewage treatment plants and seawater
desalination plants."
It is one of four businesses which the industrial conglomerate
put up for sale last year, in a push to streamline its operations
and boost earnings.
The company spun off its Osram lighting unit, now Osram Licht AG
(OSR.XE), to shareholders earlier this year and unsuccessfully
tried selling its Solel Solar Systems unit, for which it couldn't
find a buyer.
Siemens said in September that apart from any acquisitions or
asset sales, it would cut 15,000 jobs, or about 4% of its global
workforce, by the time its fiscal year ends next September.
Chief Executive Joe Kaeser is under pressure to meet the
company's ambitious profit targets, after Siemens dismissed his
predecessor Peter Loescher in July due to a string of profit
warnings.
Siemens entered the water treatment market in 2004, when it
acquired USFilter Corporation from Veolia Environnement S.A.
(VIE.FR) for $993 million--a deal that positioned Siemens as the
market leader in the water and wastewater treatment business in
North America.
(Friedrich Geiger contributed to this story.)
Write to Nicky Redl at nicky.redl@dowjones.com or via Twitter:
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