Siemens purchases majority share in Axiva

The Siemens Automation and Drives Group (Erlangen, Germany) has purchased a 75% share in process and engineering firm Axiva GmbH (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) from Celanese AG (Kronberg, Germany). Axiva, the former Hoechst central engineering R&D group, became part of Celanese when the company was spun off by Hoechst AG late last year.

As of October 1, Axiva will become Siemens Axiva GmbH & Co. KG. Current Axiva CEO Norbert Schadler and Siemens' Michael Kirf will form the management team. The company will retain its existing headquarters in Frankfurt/Main.

With 570 employees and annual sales of EUR 77 million, Axiva provides technology development and implementation, project processing and process consulting for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

The acquisition is another step by Siemens to combine process engineering expertise with its existing strength in process automation. The company has noted that as automation hardware grows increasingly standardized, margins are declining.

Software and engineering services provide ways to differentiate hardware products. In January 2000, Siemens acquired Moore Products Co. (Philadelphia, PA), a major developer of process control systems.

The Axiva acquisition enables Siemens to provide chemical and pharmaceutical customers with comprehensive support for projects ranging from supplier laboratory development through production plant startup.

Celanese will continue to hold a 25% share in Axiva, and to cooperate with the company in many technical areas. Its Ticona engineering polymers business, for example, worked with Axiva to jointly plan and build a large production plant for the company's Topas cycloolefin copolymer.

Edited by Alan S. Brown
Managing Editor, Chemical Online
abrown@vertical.net