The new owners of Mannesmann Dematic have confirmed that they intend to keep the crane business for at least three years.
German conglomerates Siemens and Bosch jointly acquired Atecs Mannesmann, parent company of Dematic in April for E9.6bn ($9.1bn). They stepped in after Thyssen Krupp offered to buy Atecs from Vodafone AirTouch, which itself took over the Mannesmann conglomerate in a hostile bid earlier this year.
Vodafone only wanted the telecommunications interests of Mannesmann so it planned to float off the engineering and automotive business under the new name Atecs Mannesmann. With unsolicited offers for Atecs Mannesmann from Thyssen Krupp and then Siemens/Bosch, a trade sale was preferred.
A Siemens spokesman told HOIST: “Siemens and Bosch intend to retain Atecs’ existing bodies, management structures and its operating independence for at least three years, and to develop its business activities by partnering them with our own. We will now get together with our partner Bosch and the Atecs Mannesmann management to discuss how to implement our concept and to hold talks with antitrust authorities. We will then give details of our plans.”
