![]() ![]() " All options are being reviewed.”īiggest shareholder Investor AB (INVEb.ST) said it was up to ABB's board to decide on the unit's future after completing the review. "As we have said all along, we will give an update on our strategic review of the Power Grids business at our Capital Markets Day on October 4," he said. "Big companies that consist of separate operations like ABB are bureaucratic, slow and ineffective."Ī spokesman for ABB declined to comment on Cevian's comments. "To spin off and list Power Grids is the only rational and logical business decision," Cevian's founder and managing partner Christer Gardell told the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper in a separate interview. Cevian is ABB's second biggest shareholder with a stake of 5.39 percent in the maker of power grids and industrial robots. ABB's shares were up 0.5 percent at 21.70 Swiss francs on Tuesday, valuing the company at around 47.7 billion francs ($49 billion).Ĭevian said it was sure a spin off would be greeted "enthusiastically by investors". ![]() Zurich-based ABB is due to give an update on its review of its Power Grids business next month. The two companies would have shares with a combined value of "at least 35 Swiss francs," the spokesman added. "ABB should spin off and separately list its Power Grids division, which would create two great companies that would grow and thrive in the long term," a spokesman for Cevian said. Daikin Industries last month agreed to buy Austrian commercial refrigerator maker AHT Cooling Systems GmbH in a deal worth about $1 billion.The Power Grids division, which supplies high voltage power cables and components used in offshore wind farms, had been a drag on ABB's overall performance but has improved its profitability in recent quarters amid falling sales. In October, KKR & Co.’s Calsonic Kansei agreed to acquire car-parts maker Magneti Marelli from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV in a deal valued at 6.2 billion euros ($7 billion). Takeda Pharmaceutical is on course to complete its $62 billion takeover of Shire after shareholders cleared the deal this month. ![]() ![]() The deal is the latest major overseas transaction by a Japanese company as financing costs remain low. The company’s atomic reactor sales have dried up as the global industry is beset by overruns, heightened competition from natural gas and renewables, and stricter rules following the Fukushima disaster.Īny agreement would add to the $3.5 billion of announced acquisitions Hitachi has been involved in over the last three years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, with the biggest being last year’s $1.25 billion purchase of units and assets from Accudyne Industries. The acquisition will bolster Hitachi’s position in the growing power transmission and distribution sector, and help it diversify away from its nuclear plant business. The business generated $7.1 billion in revenue in the first nine months of 2018 and a profit margin of 9.8 percent, the lowest of its four units.ĪBB and Hitachi said last week that they were in discussions to expand and redefine an existing strategic power-grid partnership that dates to 2014, without providing details on the terms. That stance changed this year after the value of the power-grids business rebounded following productivity and margin gains, prompting ABB to work with advisers to consider options, people familiar with the matter said in October. After conducting a strategic review, Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Spiesshofer defied the investor in 2016 by deciding to hang on to the division, arguing the business was significantly undervalued. For Hitachi, the move is part of Chief Executive Officer Toshiaki Higashihara’s efforts to restructure the diversified company, which is vying to become one of the top grid companies in the world, according to a June presentation.Ī divestment would also meet a longtime demand of activist investor Cevian Capital AB, which became a major ABB shareholder more than three years ago. ![]()
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