India's Suzlon buys Belgian gear box firm http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=hotStocksNews&storyID=2006-03-17T090149Z_01_BOM204251_RTRUKOC_0_
Fri Mar 17, 2006
By Narayanan Somasundaram
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy Ltd. (SUZL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it had acquired Belgium's EVE Holding NV for 465 million euros ($565 million) in equity and debt in India's second-largest foreign corporate takeover ever.
Suzlon said the deal, its second overseas foray this week, gives it ownership of Antwerp-based Hansen Transmissions International NV, the world's second-largest maker of wind turbine generator gear boxes. The Indian company made the purchase, which includes 430 million euros of equity, on the doorstep of Denmark's Vestas (VWS.CO: Quote, Profile, Research), the world leader in wind turbines with about 30 percent of the global wind power market.
"Gear box and turbine technologies are the key bottlenecks in our industry," Suzlon Chairman Tulsi Tanti told Reuters in a phone interview. "It's good sense to acquire and then expand capacity."
Suzlon shares, which hit a new high of 1,342 rupees this week, were up nearly 2 percent at 1,315 rupees in a firm Mumbai market.
The Belgian deal is India's largest-ever foreign deal after last month's 480-million-euro takeover of German generic drug maker Betapharm by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. (REDY.BO: Quote, Profile, Research).
Suzlon, which raised nearly 15 billion rupees ($337 million) when it went public last October, had announced on Thursday a $60 million investment in a wind turbine-manufacturing unit in China.
Tanti said the Hansen acquisition represented a move to integrate manufacturing in the fast-growing wind power industry.
Suzlon will acquire the entire shareholding of EVE, a 50-50 venture of Allianz Capital Partners and UK private equity firm Apax Partners, through its Dutch subsidiary AE-Rotor Holding BV.
The deal has been financed through a syndicated loan from Britain's Barclays Bank and India's ICICI Bank, Tanti said.
Hansen, sold by Invensys Plc (ISYS.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to Allianz Capital for 132 million euros in 2004, has subsidiaries in Britain, Australia, Brazil, United States and South Africa.
($1=44.4 Indian rupees) ($1=.8276 Euro) (Additional reporting by Hiral Vora and Harish Nambiar)
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