GERMANY: The GEA Group is to sell its heat exchanger division to focus on its core business as system provider to the process and food industries.
In a statement from its head office in Dusseldorf, GEA says it has decided to separate from this business in the medium term and is reviewing all options for a separation from the heat exchanger segment.

GEA Heat Exchangers comprises 13 companies supplying products across a wide range of markets and includes UK businesses Searle and Denco and German refrigeration companies Kuba and Goedhart.

'Efficient deployment of our human and financial resources is central to GEA's continued successful development going forward,' said GEA chairman Jürg Oleas. 'This means we have to focus as we expand our business.

'The in-depth review of all business units has shown that our technologies for the food industry and their deployment in alternative sectors hold very substantial growth potential. Their markets are highly stable and are driven by long-term global megatrends. We therefore plan to sustainably increase the proportion of Group revenue accounted for by food technologies in the medium term to around 70 to 75%.'

GEA acknowledges that the heat exchanger business is highly profitable but sees limited potential synergies between heat exchangers and the other GEA business units as their business profiles differ. It also says that it sees limited scope for Group-wide use of technologies and capabilities.

'In light of this, GEA firmly believes that the HX business will be able to develop even better within a new ownership structure,' says the company statement.