L R AS Published on Thursday 11 July 2019 - n° 285 - Categories:purchase and sale of assets
The Swiss company ABB sells its solar inverter business and pays €470 million to the buyer.
The Swiss company ABB sells its solar inverter branch and pays €470 million to the buyer, the Italian company Fimer. The purpose of this transaction
is to withdraw from a market subject to increasing price pressure. This is because ABB's sales of solar inverters have fallen considerably since the takeover of this business in 2013. The aim is to shift to activities with better profit margins than solar inverters.
This strong pressure on prices is prompting a number of manufacturers to abandon the sector: in January 2019, Kaco New Energy sold its Korean central inverter subsidiary to OCI Power, then sold its photovoltaic inverter business to Siemens in February.
In March 2019, Schneider Electric confirmed the end of its power plant inverter business to reposition itself towards the residential, commercial and industrial segments, and towards its Internet of Things platform, EcoStruxure.
China's Huawei and Sungrow hold 22% and 15% of the market; SMA has 8% of the market; ABB held 5%. This is the result of price competitiveness.
GreenTech Media of 9 July
Editor's note This withdrawal should be read as more than a simple disengagement. It is a turning point in the reshaping of the global inverter industry. For the benefit of China. Keeping its domestic market sheltered from foreign competition, Chinese companies can easily establish low prices abroad both because of their production costs and a systematic desire to conquer markets. How much of this is due to both factors is difficult to determine. What is certain is that if ABB pays the buyer to get rid of its inverter business, it is at a heavy loss. Yet ABB has production plants in India that should make it possible to offer low prices. So, is this the heavy and costly management of a large group? Is it the dumping policy of the Chinese?
