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Siemens Lines Up 8 Banks to Help Sell as Much as $13 Bln Assets
London, July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Siemens AG has hired eight investment banks to oversee Germany's biggest corporate reorganization, involving sales of assets valued by analysts at as much as 25 billion deutsche marks ($13.4 billion.)
The nation's largest electronics and engineering company said Thursday it hired Merrill Lynch & Co., Warburg Dillon Read and Commerzbank AG to oversee a stock offering of its Epcos components business, the latest step in the streamlining process.
Chief Executive Heinrich von Pierer has pledged to rid the company of units with revenues of 17 billion marks, or 15 percent of annual sales. The aim is to focus on more profitable businesses such as telecommunications equipment and better compete with rivals including Royal Philips Electronics NV. ''Siemens had been reluctant to work on its portfolio'' of businesses, and that gave competitors an edge, said Frank Rothauge, an analyst at Oppenheim Finanzanalyse GmbH in Frankfurt. Now, it's ''in a position to catch up.''
The Munich-based company began the reorganization in July 1998, when Dresdner Kleinwort Benson helped Siemens sell its power-cables business to Pirelli SpA of Italy for about 500 million marks. The bulk of the disposals and stock offerings will come in the second half of this year.
The electromechanical division, grouping units that make electronic switches to stop or redirect power, electronic connectors and fiber-optic components, will be sold by J.P. Morgan & Co. for more than 1.5 billion marks, analysts said. Buyout firms, including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Schroder Ventures, have made offers for the business. |
