Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises (B&W) is selling its Megtec and Universal businesses to the US arm of Germany-based engineering firm Dürr.
Dürr said it is acquiring 100% of the shares in each of the three B&W subsidiaries— Babcock & Wilcox Megtec, Babcock & Wilcox Megtec Holdings and Babcock & Wilcox Universal— in a $130 million deal that is subject to adjustment.
Megtec offers dryers and coating systems for the production of lithium-ion battery electrodes in addition to exhaust-air purification systems. Universal is a leading supplier of acoustic solutions, specialising in noise and emission filtration systems.
Dürr said the businesses will be integrated into its environmental technology division, Clean Technology Systems— which is expected to achieve sales of up to EUR200 million ($236.5m) this year.
A Dürr spokesperson told BBB a contract recently awarded to Megtec to design and supply electrode coating equipment for the first lithium cells manufacturing plant to be built in Italy would “continue as normal”.
The spokesperson said it was “still too early” to say whether Dürr, whose existing business supports electric vehicle battery production in Germany, could use the acquisition to expand the batteries side of its operations.
“We will go on analysing the business and be more concrete after the closing of the deal which we are expecting for September,” the spokesperson said.
