Reuters: Private Equity: Alpiq to sell engineering unit to French rival-sources

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Alpiq to sell engineering unit to French rival-sources Apr 18th 2012, 13:54 By Arno Schuetze and Gilles Guillaume FRANKFURT/PARIS, April 18 | Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:54am EDT FRANKFURT/PARIS, April 18 (Reuters) - Swiss energy company Alpiq, hit hard by Switzerland's decision to phase out nuclear power, is close to a disposal laid out in a revamp of the business last year, three people close to the matter said. Cegelec, a unit of France's largest listed construction and concessions company Vinci, as well as private equity-owned French engineering group Spie have placed binding bids for Alpiq's German power engineering business Energie-Versorgungstechnik (EVT), they said. Alpiq is set to decide on the matter at a board meeting on April 26, one of the people said. Alpiq launched a package of measures last year to revamp operations and shed unprofitable businesses to reduce group debt by more than 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.09 billion) by the end of 2012. The group posted total impairments and provisions in 2011 of 1.7 billion Swiss francs. Among others, Alpiq initiated the sale of its German subsidiary Alpiq Anlagentechnik Group (AAT), which comprises EVT and Energie-Anlagentechnik (EAT). No bidders emerged for AAT as a whole, which has about 5,000 workers and annual sales of 1 billion euros ($1.31 billion). Financial sources have estimated previously that AAT's price tag might be about 500 million euros, while EVT alone could fetch at least 200 million. EVT employs 3,000 people and had 2011 sales of 512 million euros. German trade union IG Metall has criticised the lack of transparency in the divestment process and warned that employee rights must be respected after a sale. Deutsche Bank, which is running the sales process, as well as Vinci and Alpiq declined to comment. Spie was not immediately available for comment. Alpiq was established in 2009 by a merger between two Swiss utilities and the Swiss operations of French electricity group EDF. Its business model is geared towards wholesale trade, whilst shareholders take over the distribution of electricity. With annual power generation of approximately 20 billion kWh it provides roughly one third of Swiss energy needs. Since the third quarter of 2011 Alpiq has undergone a substantial restructuring programme, including the downsizing of speculative trading operations. The company also plans to refocus on four key markets: Switzerland, Italy, Romania and France. ($1 = 0.9145 Swiss franc = 0.7610 euro) (Additional reporting by Elena Berton and Andrew Thompson; Editing by David Cowell) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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