Article Abstract:
An international group of investors is to take over the Austrian engineering company Andritz AG from the German Agiv group for Sch 6.3bn. The new owners want to support Andritz with further international expansion. Andritz is to concentrate on the four core sectors of paper and pulp machinery, steel processing machines, sewage treatment equipment and machines for animal feed production. Acquisitions are planned, and also going public is possible. The buyer consortium is led by Austrian Vienna-based Unternehmens Invest AG (UIAG). UIAG and its German majority shareholder Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) are to take 17% and 8% stakes in Andritz, respectively. The US-based investment company Carlyle will hold 47.5%, while the remaining 27.5% stake will go to the chief executive Wolfgang Leitner and the management of Andritz. In 1998, Andritz generated a turnover of Sch 8.7bn. The group employs 3,000 people, 1,250 of them in Austria.
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Article Abstract:
Andritz AG has won its biggest-ever contract in Latin America. The Brazilian pulp maker Aracruz Celulose S.A. placed a US$ 160mn order with the Austrian company for the delivery of machinery and systems for a new production line. US$ 105mn of the contract volume is handled by Andritz-Ahlstrom of Finland, in which Andritz holds a 50% stake. Separately, Andritz has won contracts worth US$ 70mn from two US companies that are setting up two new pulp production lines. Chief executive Wolfgang Leitner says that Andritz is to expand in the Nafta region, where it is active through a 50:50 joint venture with Voith of Germany. The company is optimistic of gaining contracts from hygiene paper makers such as Georgia-Pacific, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble. For year 2000 Andritz expects an operating profit of about Sch 400mn on a turnover of more than Sch 12bn.
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Article Abstract:
The hygiene paper division of Swedish SCA is planning a large investment in one of its existing paper mills. The Austrian subsidiary SCA Graphic Laakirchen is said to have good chances. In Austria, SCA is planning to replace a paper machine and invest several billions of schillings.
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