Schneider Electric to acquire Citect

-- Control Engineering, 11/1/2005

Rueil Malmaison, France and Sydney, Australia—Schneider Electric’s main Australian subsidiary, Schneider Australia, and Citect have signed a merger implementation agreement. Under the agreement, Schneider Australia will acquire, by way of a scheme of arrangement, all shares in Citect. The enterprise value of the transaction is estimated at 48 million Euros. The agreement remains conditional upon the satisfaction of several precedent conditions.

The acquisition will add supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and manufacturing execution systems (MES) capabilities to Schneider’s industrial automation offerings. According to the release, Schneider expects to benefit from Citect’s acknowledged strengths in the SCADA and MES fields while Citect should benefit from Schneider Electric’s global reach and ability to deliver complete industrial automation solutions worldwide.

Russell Stocker, executive vice president, Schneider Electric Asia Pacific Operating Div., said the acquisition reflects the company’s commitment to extend integrated solutions offerings in industrial and infrastructure fields by delivering highly scalable and reliable systems that reduce cost of ownership and improve product quality. Citect’s people, he said, “will bring R&D experience, end-user relationships, as well as the understanding of SCADA/MES business models.”

Citect is one of the largest independent suppliers of industrial automation software with more than 100,000 software licenses sold to date. It has a network of more than 500 integration partners and 350 employees in 19 offices. Citect generated revenues of 38.2 million Euros in 2004 and is forecasting operating earnings of around 3.6 million Euros (before restructuring costs) for 2005, an increase of close to 20%. According to the announcement, the Citect board of directors has approved the agreement and is recommending the transaction to shareholders.

—Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Jeanine Katzel, senior editor, jkatzel@reedbusiness.com