ABB has decided to sell its solar inverter business to Italian company FIMER.
FIMER is the world`s eighth largest inverter manufacturer. Its main business is the production of inverters for photovoltaic plants, welding and charging stations for electric vehicles at its operational and integrated plant in Vimercate, Italy.
ABB’s solar inverter business has approximately 800 employees in more than 30 countries, with manufacturing and R&D sites located in Italy, India and Finland. It includes the solar inverter business from Power-One which was acquired by ABB’s Discrete Automation and Motion division in 2013.
It is currently within ABB’s Electrification business and achieved revenues of approximately $290 million in 2018.
ABB expects to take a non-operational charge of approximately $430 million in the second quarter of 2019 with the half-year results of 2019 being impacted accordingly. Around 75 percent of this charge is represented by cash outflows ABB will pay to FIMER from the deal closing date through 2025. ABB expects up to $40 million of carve-out related separation costs starting in the second half of 2019.
ABB expects the operational EBITA margin for the Electrification business to be impacted positively by slightly more than 50 basis points, supporting the business’ progress towards its target margin corridor of 15-19 percent.
Completion of the deal is expected in the first quarter of 2020 and will be subject to certain conditions, including the completion of the carve-out and prior consultation with employee representative bodies.
“The divestment is in line with our strategy of portfolio management to strengthen competitiveness, focus on quality of revenue and higher growth segments,” Tarak Mehta, president of ABB’s Electrification business, said.