On May 16th, Munich reported that Siemens announced that its board of directors and supervisory board had approved the sale of its motor and large drive company Innomotics to KPS Capital Partners, LP (KPS), with an acquisition price of 3.5 billion euros. Both parties have signed the corresponding agreement.
According to the disclosure, after obtaining regulatory approval, The acquisition of Innomotics by KPS is expected to be completed in the first half of fiscal year 2025. As an important participant in the global field of motors and large drives, Innomotics has a revenue of 3.3 billion euros and approximately 15000 employees.
In November 2022, Siemens decided to merge its large drive and motor businesses and establish an independent entity outside of the company's core business. Afterwards, Siemens believed that the sale would benefit all relevant parties, so it decided not to continue preparing for the public listing of Imenda, which was announced in November 2023.
According to the latest data statistics as of November 2023, as well as authoritative market research and external evaluation results, INMengDa's performance in the low-voltage motor field is particularly impressive, firmly holding the top spot in the global IEC market. At the same time, in the high voltage motor and medium voltage drive markets, Yinmengda has also demonstrated outstanding competitiveness, ranking first in the industry. In addition, the solutions provided by Imenda also rank second globally, fully demonstrating its comprehensive technical strength and market influence.
It is reported that in addition to KPS's competition for the acquisition of the IMD business, Nidec has also been involved in the transaction battle before. According to Bloomberg, Nideco was invited to join the second round of bidding team.
As part of the strategic adjustment and optimization of the product portfolio, Siemens sold and spun off some of its businesses before selling Inmonda.
In May 2019, Siemens announced that it would spin off Oil and Gas and Power Group for independent listing, and transfer all 59% of its shares in the joint venture company Siemens Gomesa to Oil and Gas Group. In October 2021, Siemens completed the sale of Flender to Carlyle Investment Group, with an enterprise value of 2.025 billion euros. In January 2022, Siemens sold its transportation technology subsidiary Yunex Traffic to Italian infrastructure holding company Atlantis for nearly 1 billion euros.
01. Spin off and listing of medical and energy businesses
In addition to selling some smaller non core businesses, Siemens will also spin off and list its healthcare and wind power businesses, which occupy an important position in the overall business.
Siemens split its healthcare and wind power businesses for the sake of improving business professionalism, flexibility, and capital efficiency. This measure will help these two businesses develop better and bring a more positive impact to Siemens' overall business portfolio.
Siemens Healthcare was spun off and listed in 2018, becoming the largest IPO in European history. In March 2018, Siemens spun off its healthcare business unit and went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany. The company sold 15% of its shares, or up to 150 million shares, at a price of 26 to 31 euros per share. The fundraising amount ranged from 3.9 billion to 4.65 billion euros, indicating a maximum valuation of 31 billion euros for the company.
In April 2017, Siemens officially completed the acquisition of Gamesa, with Siemens holding 59% of the merged company's equity. In May 2019, Siemens announced that it would transfer all of its 59% stake in Siemens Gomesa to its natural gas and power generation group. The natural gas and power generation group would be spun off from Siemens and operate independently, with plans to go public before September 2020.
In February 2020, the Siemens shareholders' meeting officially agreed to repurchase the 8.1% equity held by Iberdrola, the former largest shareholder of Gomesa, and Siemens' equity in Gomesa was officially increased to 67%. On May 7, 2020, Siemens announced the divestment of its Oil, Gas, and Power Group (GP), which would be spun off and listed as a new company, and the transfer of its 59% stake in Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Company to the new company.
In June 2020, Siemens plans to hold a special shareholder meeting to decide on the spin off and subsequent public listing plan. In July 2020, Siemens held an extraordinary shareholder meeting, with 99.36% of the votes supporting the independent operation and listing of its component energy business. In September 2020, Siemens Energy planned to go public.
As a contractor of Siemens wind power business, Siemens Gomesa has recently announced plans to lay off employees. On May 8, 2024, Siemens Energy announced that its wind power division, Gamesa, will lay off employees and initiate a comprehensive restructuring, with the goal of achieving revenue and expenditure balance and achieving double-digit operating profit margins by 2026. Gomesa will be incorporated into the management structure of the group, and its CEO Jochen Eickholt will step down on July 31, with Chief Operating Officer Vinod Philip taking over his position.
02. Increase software layout and frequent acquisitions
From the recent business adjustments (whether it is sales/spin offs, or acquisitions), Siemens is enhancing its strength in industrial digitization, intelligent manufacturing, and other fields by integrating software company technologies and solutions to better adapt to the trend of digital transformation.
Some software companies that Siemens has acquired in recent years, such as Camstar, were successfully acquired by Siemens at the end of 2014, giving it strong analytical capabilities for on-site factory data. In 2016, Siemens acquired CD adapco for $970 million, a global engineering simulation software supplier whose software solutions cover a wide range of engineering disciplines including fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, heat transfer, particle dynamics, feed flow, electrochemistry, acoustics, and rheology. On August 30, 2017, Siemens acquired Dutch autonomous driving software company Tass International to strengthen its automotive business. On June 1, 2020, Siemens acquired Vizendo AB, a software company based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Since 2004, it has been a provider of Virtual Operator Training services and software, with most of its customers coming from the automotive industry. In 2022, Siemens acquired Brightly Software, a US asset management software company, for $1.58 billion.
Siemens has entered a new software related business area through acquisitions, expanding its market coverage by enriching its product line and service content; On the other hand, the integration with software companies helps them build a more complete and collaborative industrial ecosystem, achieving a comprehensive layout from hardware to software.
Not only Siemens, but also companies such as ABB, Honeywell, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Technology giants such as PTC are intensifying their acquisition of software companies and expanding their presence in the field of intelligent manufacturing.
03. General Electric is divided into three parts
In November 2021, General Electric (GE) announced plans to spin off into three independent listed companies.
The spin off of General Electric aims to focus more on various core business areas to improve operational efficiency and competitiveness. The spun off companies will continue to develop and operate in their respective markets, and their specific performance will vary depending on the characteristics of different businesses and market environments.
In January 2023, General Electric's healthcare business was listed as an independent company on NASDAQ, with a new company named GE HealthCare Technologies. On the first day of listing, the company's stock price rose 8% to $60.49, with a market value of $25.4 billion.
In mid February this year, GE announced in its registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its plan to spin off GE Vernova that, following strong performance and sustained momentum in 2023, GE Vernova is preparing to spin off in early April. The agreement has been signed! Siemens sells drive business to KPS for 3.5 billion euros
At 9:30 AM Eastern Time on April 2, 2024, GE Aerospace and GE Vernova jointly sounded the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange. Regarding this, H. Chairman and CEO of GE Aerospace Lawrence Culp Jr. said, "With the successful listing of three independent listed companies, today marks a historic final step in General Electric's years of transformation.", GE Aerospace is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the stock code "GE". As can be seen, Aerospace has completely become the core of the original group.