Hitachi : Brookfield, Temasek team up for Thyssenkrupp elevator bid -sources
January 10, 2020 at 04:10 pm
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FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - Canada's Brookfield Asset Management has teamed up with Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings in the auction for Thyssenkrupp's prized 15 billion euro (12.71 billion pounds) elevator division, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The tie-up creates another powerful private equity consortium for the asset, which Thyssenkrupp plans to sell or list, ahead of a Jan. 13 deadline for binding bids.
Brookfield and Temasek both declined to comment.
Thyssenkrupp, under pressure after numerous profit warnings, needs to rake in cash by selling all or part of its elevator business, the world's fourth-largest industry player and by far the group's most profitable asset.
Rival bidders for the unit include a consortium consisting of Blackstone, Carlyle and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, sources previously said. Advent, Cinven [CINV.UL] and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have also teamed up for an offer.
Apart from Finland's Kone, which could bid together with private equity firm CVC [CVC.UL], Japan's Hitachi is also in the race, the people, who did not wish to be identified, said.
Thyssenkrupp's supervisory board will meet on Jan. 15 to discuss the auction's progress and is expected to narrow the field of bidders, with only 2-3 to be short-listed for a final round of talks, the sources said.
The group has launched a dual-track process for the division, which could result in a sale or a listing, but chances for the latter are seen dwindling as proceeds from a partial flotation might not be sufficient.
Thyssenkrupp declined to comment.
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Arno Schuetze and Tom Kaeckenhoff; editing by Thomas Seythal and Susan Fenton)
Hitachi specializes in manufacturing and marketing of electronic and industrial equipments. Net sales (including intragroup) break down by family of products and services as follows:
- social infrastructure and industrial systems (24.7%): elevators, escalators, industrial facilities, railway systems, power generation units, etc. The group also provides engineering and construction of nuclear, hydroelectric, and thermal power plants services;
- information and telecommunications products and services (20.1%): systems integration, cloud computing, software, servers, hard disks, PCs, ATMs, data communication base stations, payment terminals, etc.;
- materials and components (16.6%): semi-conductor materials, printed circuit cards, cables, copper and forged steel products, magnetic materials, organic and inorganic chemical products, etc.;
- construction equipment (10%) : hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, mining equipment, etc.;
- automotive systems (9.4%): powertrain systems, control systems, etc.;
- electronic products (9.2%): fiber-optic components, screen tubes, testing and measurement equipment, medical equipment, equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, etc.;
- household appliances (4.7%): heating and air conditioning equipments, refrigerators, washing machines, etc.;
- other (5.3%): mainly transport, financial and logistical services.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Japan (49.2%), Asia (21.3%), North America (12.7%), Europe (10.8%) and other (6%).