A further step toward the portfolio realignment of the ThyssenKrupp Group was made on October 12, 2000 when ThyssenKrupp Industries signed an agreement on the sale of the Krupp Werner & Pfleiderer group, Stuttgart. The agreement is subject to the approval of the supervisory boards and the relevant authorities.

The buyer is a new joint venture established by Georg Fischer AG, Schaffhausen, West Private Equity Ltd., a London-based private equity fund, and Westdeutsche Landesbank, Düsseldorf. Georg Fischer has contributed its own groups Waeschle and Buss and will hold 50.1% of the shares.

The tie-up will create a world leading supplier of plastics compounding systems and components with a sales volume of almost Euro 400 m and just over 2,000 employees. The operating units comprise 18 companies with 35 locations, mostly in Germany, Switzerland, the USA and India. Under the management of Georg Fischer, the new company will pursue a consistent policy of expansion and plans to go public in the medium term are not being ruled out.

Belonging to ThyssenKrupp Industries, Essen, Krupp Werner & Pfleiderer is currently part of the plastics machinery business unit, which is not a core business under the ThyssenKrupp Group’s strategic plan. The very successful company (sales: Euro m, employees: 1,100) is a specialist in plastics compounding machinery. The new constellation offers Krupp Werner & Pfleiderer optimum conditions for future success.

Following the sale of Krupp Kunststofftechnik to Schweizerische Industriegesellschaft Holding AG (SIG) in the first half-year, ThyssenKrupp Industries has again succeeded in opening up the best possible opportunities for the future of a company earmarked for divestiture. Altogether since the ThyssenKrupp merger the Group has made acquisitions with a sales volume of Euro 3.3 bn while divestitures reached a volume of around Euro 2.3 bn.