Siemens to sell drive division to KPS for $3 billion, sources

By Alexander Hübner

BERLIN/ZURICH (Reuters) -Germany's Siemens will sell its Innomotics large motors and drives division to financial investor KPS Capital Partners for 3 billion euros ($3.25 billion), two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Siemens will announce the deal on Thursday along with its financial results, the sources said, confirming an earlier report published by Handelsblatt newspaper.

Siemens declined to comment on the report.

The sources said KPS had vied with Japanese engine manufacturer Nidec for Innomotics, which is based in Nuremberg, Germany, employs around 14,000 people, and has been a separately managed subsidiary of Siemens since July 2023.

The company was formed by Siemens combining its activities in low- to high-voltage motors, geared motors, medium-voltage converters and motor spindles - operations which share suppliers, customers and technologies - in a new company.

Siemens said in February that plans for complete independence of the business, which has sales of more than 3 billion euros, were progressing well.

Siemens has previously sold various portfolio companies - Yunex road traffic technology company was sold to Italy's Atlantia family for around a billion euros and gearbox subsidiary Flender that was taken over by financial investor Carlyle for more than two billion euros.

New York investment firm KPS primarily invests in industrial companies and sees numerous opportunities for acquisitions in Germany, Handelsblatt said.

(Writing by Madeline Chambers, John Revill and Alexander Hübner, editing by Andrey Sychev, Matthias Williams, Alexandra Hudson)