Invensys to divest Baan, most Energy Management units

To focus more closely on automation and controls and pay off existing debt, Invensys plc announced April 15 plans to divest Baan and most of its Energy Management division units, which represent about $4.58 billion in annual sales. The businesses slated for sale during the next 18-24 months include Baan, product-based Appliance Controls, Climate Controls, Metering Systems, ...

By Staff May 1, 2003

To focus more closely on automation and controls and pay off existing debt, Invensys plc announced April 15 plans to divest Baan and most of its Energy Management division units, which represent about $4.58 billion in annual sales. The businesses slated for sale during the next 18-24 months include Baan, product-based Appliance Controls, Climate Controls, Metering Systems, APV Baker, Powerware, Lambda, Teccor and Hansen Transmissions. They will be managed in an expanded Development Division until they are sold.

Invensys plans to retain its Production Management division companies, including Foxboro, Triconex, Wonderware, Eurotherm, APV Solutions & Services and SimSci-Esscor. IMServ and certain data management technologies in the Energy Management division also will be added to Production Management, while Invensys Rail Systems will be kept and operated separately. Invensys’ new ArchestrA industrial software framework will be deployed throughout its remaining units.

“Our strategy remains the same. We’re not just playing to compete. We playing to win,” says Sasan Goodarzi, president of Invensys Manufacturing and Process Solutions. Mr. Goodarzi told Control Engineering on April 22 that its latest divestiture will allow it to retire debt, improve credit ratings, lower its cost of borrowing, and invest more in current businesses, with internal development and strategic acquisitions.

Mr. Goodarzi adds that he and Invensys’ other leaders will remain, including Rick Haythornthwaite, Invensys’ ceo, Leo Quinn, Invensys Production Management’s coo, and Mike Bradley, Invensys Wonderware/ArchestrA’s president. Invensys will provide more details about its plans when it releases full-year results on May 29.