GEA Group AG

M&A Activity • Jan 5, 2009

News Details

Corporate | 5 January 2009 13:40

GEA Group AG: GEA increases activities in the Solar Thermal Business

GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft / Acquisition

Release of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory
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The issuer / publisher is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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Bochum/Bilbao, January 5, 2009 – GEA Ibérica, the Spanish subsidiary of the
GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, has acquired Caldemón Ibérica S.A., a leading
manufacturer of shell and tube heat exchangers and surface condensers,
commonly used in solar thermal power plants. In 2008, the company expects
sales of more than EUR 10 million with a total of 90 employees. The
activities of Caldemón Ibérica will continue at the existing site in
Revilla de Camargo, near Santander/Spain, but, due to the brand strategy of
the GEA Group, the company will be renamed to 'GEA Caldemón S.A.'.
Including Caldemón the GEA Group has acquired 10 companies in the financial
year 2008 (the previous acquisition being ADG Packaging Systems Limited in
November), all of which have a combined sales volume of approximately EUR
200 million.

'We have a fast and sustainable growing market in the solar thermal
business, and, as is predicted in the IEA World Energy Outlook 2008, the
installed capacity of solar thermal power plants will increase from 7 GW to
35 GW on a global scale by the year 2015,' explained Juerg Oleas, Chairman
of the GEA Group. This growth prediction is based on the global need to
save energy resources and simultaneously to reduce CO2 emissions.
Currently, the main market for solar thermal power plants is in Europe,
where GEA Group has already realized a number of projects in co-operation
with Caldemón Ibérica. Further growth opportunities will however come from
the United States of America, which foresees the production of ten percent
of its electricity from renewable electricity sources by 2012, as stated in
the Obama-Biden Plan.

The GEA Group is already a leading supplier of air cooled condensers, wet
cooling towers and indirect dry cooling systems to the global power
industry. With this acquisition the group has extended their competence in
this product line and has become a full-line supplier of heat exchangers to
the solar power industry.

The GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft is Germany's largest listed mechanical
engineering group. As an international technology group, the company
concentrates on specialty mechanical engineering, with a focus on process
technology and components. Consolidated sales amounted to EUR 5.2 billion
in 2007, when the group generated over 50 percent of its sales in the
high-growth food processing and beverages industries. As of September 30,
2008, the company's workforce comprised over 21,000 employees, based in 50
countries. The GEA Group ranks as a market and technology leader in 90
percent of its business areas and is listed on the German MDAX share index
(G1A, WKN 660200).
05.01.2009 Financial News transmitted by DGAP

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Language: English
Issuer: GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft
Dorstener Straße 484
44809 Bochum
Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)234 980-0
Fax: +49 (0)234 980-1004
E-mail: investor.relations@geagroup.com
Internet: www.geagroup.com
ISIN: DE0006602006
WKN: 660200
Indices: MDAX
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Berlin, Frankfurt (Prime Standard),
Düsseldorf, Hamburg, München; Freiverkehr in Hannover,
Stuttgart

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