April 17, 2006 — Techint and SMS Demag have announced they will take over LOI Thermprocess GmbH, based in Essen, Germany, from the Elster Group.
With around 600 employees and sales of approximately EUR 200 million, the LOI Group is an international supplier of high-quality industrial furnaces for the steel and aluminum industry. Since 2003, the LOI Group has also included Drever International, based in Liège, Belgium.
Techint and SMS Demag have formed a joint-venture company for the takeover of LOI. The groups say they intend to maintain LOI’s existing corporate structure as an independent supplier of furnace technology, as well as its Essen headquarters and all other LOI Group locations. With the takeover, the groups also intend to expand on the LOI Group’s existing leadership position.
The transaction, which the groups say will benefit all stakeholders of LOI, Techint and SMS Demag, is subject to approval by the antitrust authorities.
The Techint Group comprises more than 100 companies with about 49,000 employees operating worldwide. Its annual sales are EUR 13 billion. Through its Division Techint Technologies, Techint is active in the fields of industrial furnaces and iron and steel plants. Techint Technologies generates sales of approximately EUR 500 million with about 800 employees.
SMS Demag belongs to the SMS metallurgy companies within the SMS group, which reached an order intake of more than EUR 2.2 billion (2005) with approximately 6,500 employees. SMS Demag is one of the world’s leading suppliers in the area of metallurgical plant and rolling mill technology and has been successfully cooperating with LOI Thermprocess on many projects.
SMS GmbH is the holding for a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering relating to the processing of steel, non-ferrous metals and plastics. The group is divided into the Business Areas of Metallurgical Plant and Rolling Mill Technology, Tube, Long Product and Forging Technology and Plastics Technology. In the year 2005 some 9,250 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.33 billion.
Based in Luxembourg, the Elster Group had a turnover of EUR 1.2 billion in 2004. The group concentrates on gas measurement and control, electricity and water metering and industrial furnaces. The disposal of LOI is a further step in focusing Elster on the metering business.