Struggling German industrial services group Bilfinger has agreed to sell its water treatment unit to Chengdu Techcent Environment Group for about 200 million euros ($223 million), it said on Saturday. Bilfinger, which in its heyday built the Sydney Opera House and the Munich Olympic stadium, has suffered in the past two years from turmoil in the energy and petrochemicals sectors to which many of its important customers belong, resulting in six profit warnings within a year.
It has been accused of mismanagement by activist investor Cevian which installed a new chairman in 2014 and a new management team last year. Bilfinger said it expects to conclude the sale of its water treatment business in the first quarter and will then book the net proceeds from the sale as additional liquidity.
The firm is also considering offers for the rest of its Building and Facility unit, which comprises its most profitable businesses. The deal marks the latest in a string of Chinese acquisitions of German companies, seeking to benefit from German know-how. Earlier this week, Beijing Enterprise agreed to buy German waste management company Energy from Waste (EEW) for 1.4 billion euros and in January, ChemChina announced the acquisition of German industrial machinery maker KraussMaffei for roughly $1 billion.
Bilfinger's Water Technologies division, which employs 1,600 staff generated an output of 300 million euros in 2015, while Techcent, which employs 1,000 staff, generated revenues of 810 million Yuan Renminbi ($123 million). Techcent, which was founded in 2001, has been acquisitive over the last two years, buying a 45 percent stake of German peer CNP in 2014 and an 80 percent stake of US-based Centrisys Corp in 2015.
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