ABB to buy Elsag Bailey for £1.2bn
15 Jan 2000
Elsag Bailey, one of the world's largest process automation companies, is to be sold to Swiss engineering conglomerate ABB for some £1.23billion. The acquisition helps shift ABB's operations towards higher-margin businesses.
The deal calls on Elsag's parent company, the Italian state-owned industrial group Finmeccania, to sell its 53 per cent stake in the company to ABB. Elsag Bailey employs around 11 000 people in 30 countries. Its revenues last year amounted to $1.5billion.
The deal will place ABB among the top suppliers worldwide of process control, analytics and instrumentation, commented ABB chief executive Goran Lindahl, and will strengthen its presence in the important markets of the US, Japan, Italy, Germany and France. It will also lead to `greater efficiencies' as the companies combine their product development, manufacturing, services, sale and distribution operations. `We have targeted the automation segment as a growth area,' Lindahl said. `Elsag Bailey clearly complements our automation activities.'
Elasg Bailey's chief executive, Vincenzo Cannatelli, agrees: `We have worked hard to position Elasg Bailey as a one-stop-shop producer of automation technologies. We think ABB is the right partner to drive this development even further.'
