BERLIN: Bosch announced yesterday it was buying out fellow German conglomerate Siemens from their home appliance joint venture for €3bn ($3.9bn).
Siemens said it was selling its 50 percent stake in BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeraete GmbH to focus on its core businesses, including energy, and announced at the same time it was to acquire Dresser-Rand, the US manufacturer of turbines and compressors.
Bosch and Siemens pooled their home appliance businesses in the joint venture in 1967.
Today BSH is Europe’s top company in the sector, employing nearly 50,000 people worldwide and generated €10.5bn in sales last year.
BSH will continue to market washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and irons under the Siemens brand.
“The sale of our BSH stake is part of our drive to continue focusing very intensively on our core business,” Siemens’s Chief Financial Officer Ralf Thomas said in a statement.
AFP
