M+W Group sells its Automation Business

M+W Group’s management decided to sell its automation business as part of a general move towards focusing on its core competencies — engineering and construction. In 2013, automation contributed approximately 170 million euros to the M+W Group’s total revenues of 2.56 billion euros. A number of industry partners and financial investors took part in the bidding procedure, but after discussions were complete, ATS emerged successful. The selling price amounts to approximately 255 million euros.

“Our automation business has developed well over the last few years. However, the synergies with our core business area — high-tech engineering and construction — are limited. For that reason, we agreed with the management of the automation business to find a new owner for this business area”, said Dr Olaf Berlien, CEO of the M+W Group. “We were pleased with the high level of interest in the automation business when we came to sell, but in the end, we decided to go with ATS. ATS is ideally suited to take over our automation business and is in the best position to exploit its worldwide growth potential, which provides a great deal of security for its current employees.”

“M+W PA’s capabilities complement ATS’s solutions in strategic customer markets and open new opportunities in attractive industries,” said Anthony Caputo, ATS Chief Executive Officer. “We welcome M+W PA’s highly skilled people, global and local customers, high value service offerings, scale and worldwide presence to our world-class automation business and look forward to continued successful collaboration with M+W Group.”

The agreement between M+W Group and ATS was signed on 8 July 2014.

About the M+W Group’ Automation business

M+W Group‘s automation business today covers 16 markets globally with 51 locations across Europe, the USA and Asia. It is one of the world’s largest manufacturer-independent automation solution providers focusing on software development for the control and visualization of critical production processes. Major end markets include the automotive sector (accounting for approximately 40 per cent of the Group’s revenue), the chemicals and pharma sectors, and other sectors. Last year, M+W Group’s automation business had a turnover of 170 million euros, employing 970 people.