Ticker Archive
SEPTEMBER 2007
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- Solon invests 700,000 euros in two U.S. peers
(Reuters)
German solar module maker Solon has invested 700,000 euros ($989,000) in two U.S. peers, strengthening its position in the fast-growing U.S. solar market, the company announced.
Solon invested in U.S. company The Solar Center, which specialises in photovoltaic and solar thermal installation, via the company's parent American Clean Power. Solon also invested in California-based start-up company Sungevity, which focuses on direct-to-consumer sales and installation of photovoltaic systems.
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- ThyssenKrupp Waupaca Plant Starts Expansion in Tennessee
(Foundrymag.com)
Ductile-iron metalcaster ThyssenKrupp Waupaca Inc. has started construction for a $162-million expansion of its Etowah, TN, which will consist of a separate operation at the six-year-old plant. It's expected to increase the total manufacturing space by about two-thirds to 472,000 ft2, and add about 100 new jobs.
“In an economy that has seen casting technology moving off-shore, we are bringing a solid basis for renewing the technology capability in America,” stated TK Waupaca president and CEO Gary Gigante.
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- Schwartz Technical Plastics moves U.S. base to Ambridge
(Press Release)
Schwartz Technical Plastics, a leading German manufacturer of industrial plastic components, is moving its North America base of operations to Ambridge and will hire 25 people. Schwartz has been operating in North Carolina since 1999 but decided to move to Pittsburgh after a devastating fire, says Bernd Nussdorfer, president. “North Carolina was a little off our main market. The proximity here to so many companies in the steel industry clearly put Pittsburgh ahead of the competition.”
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- Schott Solar starts joint venture with Wacker Chemie
(PRweb.com)
Schott Solar announced a new joint venture with Wacker Chemie, a globally positioned chemical company headquartered in Munich, Germany, to produce multicrystalline silicon ingots and wafers, the starting material for solar cells.
This partnership provides Schott Solar with a reliable supply of polysilicon, for the tremendous growth the company planned. It recently announced plans to build a new photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing facility that will increase its domestic PV production by more than 60 MW and is scheduled to go online in 2009.
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- Evotec to Acquire Renovis
(Business Wire)
Evotec AG and Renovis, Inc. announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Evotec will acquire Renovis, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of drugs for major medical needs in the areas of pain and inflammatory diseases, in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at approximately US$ 151.8 million.
The merger is expected to create an emerging global pharmaceutical company with three clinical candidates, a strong late stage preclinical pipeline focusing on areas of neurological and inflammatory diseases, and pro-forma cash of approximately US$ 175 million. The merged company will be called Evotec.
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- Deutsche Telekom buys US operator
(Financial Times)
Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest telephone group, underlined its determination to do business in the US by paying $2.4bn for SunCom Wireless, a mobile phone operator in south-east US.
In the spring, René Obermann, DT chief executive, pledged to expand DT’s T-Mobile in existing markets, including the US, in response to falling sales in its domestic fixed-line business.
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- HeidelbergCement Acquires Hanson PLC
(Press Release)
HeidelbergCement completed a successful acquisition of Hanson PLC, announced the worldwide operating German based producer of building materials. As a result, in 2008 this acquisition will significantly increase the company's annual revenues in the U.S. to around US$ 7 billion and the number of employees from 6,000 to nearly 20,000.
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- Infineon Still Stuck With Subsidiary Qimonda
(Forbes)
Try as it might, German chip-maker Infineon simply cannot unload its majority stake in loss-making memory business Qimonda. On Wednesday it announced various measures to reduce its investment from 86% to 72.5%, but analysts believe it will take some time before outside investors soak up a bigger slice of the lagging subsidiary.
As a stated "first step," Infineon declared to the Securities and Exchange Commission its intent to sell 25 million shares in Qimonda, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. There is also a so-called "greenshoe" option to sell 3.75 million more shares, given demand.
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- German Machine Tool Production to Rise 15%
(ManufacturingTalk.com)
The German Machine Tool Builders' Association expects German machine tool output to rise 15% to EUR 12.4 billion. In the first six months of 2007 German exports grew by 16%. In 13 of the 15 most important markets, export deliveries rose by double percentage figures.
On the other hand, the 15% slump figure for German supplies to the second most important market, the USA, is misleading. "On account of the low exchange rate for the US dollar, German manufacturers have vigorously expanded their production activities in the USA," said Helmut von Monschaw, executive director of the German Machine Tool Builders' Association (VDW).
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- German Firm Buys Boca Biotech
(Palm Beach Post)
Nabi Biopharmaceuticals Inc., a prominent but struggling biotechnology firm, announced Tuesday it would sell its Boca Raton operations to a German company for $185 million - a move that would strip Florida of a biotech headquarters even as leaders try to rev up that sector of the economy.
Biotest AG of Dreieich, Germany, plans to pay cash for Nabi's biologics division, including the firm's corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, a 2-year-old plasma-proteins plant and nine plasma collection centers.
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- Porsche Hires Chicago-based Company for Advertising
(Associated Press)
A Chicago company is the new advertising agency for a North American subsidiary of Porsche. The German luxury automaker says it chose Cramer-Krasselt in a four-month review process involving 20 agencies. Cramer-Krasselt will handle the creative and media planning and buying for Porsche Cars North American. It's a $40 million account for the Atlanta-based company.
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- German Firm to Invest $85 Million in Franklin County
(VA Newswire)
McAirlaid's Vliesstoffe GmbH & Co. KG, a German manufacturer of non-woven composite materials for absorbency end uses, will invest $85 million to open its first United States manufacturing facility and headquarters in Rocky Mount, Franklin County's Commerce Center. The new facility, which will employ 160 people, will use the company's patented method to produce non-woven material without chemicals or glues.
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- VW Moving from Michigan to Virginia
(MSNBC / DetNews.com)
Volkswagen is moving its North American headquarters out of the Detroit area to the suburbs of the nation’s capital and will cut 400 jobs in the process, the German automaker announced. Volkswagen of America’s move from Auburn Hills, Michigan, to Herndon, Virginia, will begin in April 2008 and be completed by the end of next year, the company said.
600 of the current 1,400 staff will remain at Auburn Hills in call center and technical services positions, while 400 jobs will be transferred to Virginia. About 150 employees in Michigan are expected to move to Herndon, Volkswagen of America President and CEO Stefan Jacoby said.
Michigan's Gov. Jennifer Granholm struggled until the final hours to persuade the German automaker to keep its North American headquarters in Oakland County, where they have been for the past 30 years. "We are grateful that so many Volkswagen jobs are staying in Michigan," Granholm said in a statement. "We look forward to continuing our strong relationship with Volkswagen in the years to come."
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- Business Objects to Acquire German Software Maker
(AFX News)
Software producer Business Objects said it has agreed to acquire privately held German data quality software company Fuzzy! Informatik. Clients of the acquired company include DaimlerChrysler, BMW, BNP Paribas (OOTC:BPRBF) unit Cortal Consors, Deutsche Post, Mazda and O2.
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- Germany's Bayer says to Delist from NYSE
(Reuters)
Bayer plans to de-list its American Depositary Shares (ADS) from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to save around 15 million euros ($20 million) a year, the German drugs and chemicals group said. Bayer also said it planned to deregister with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and terminate the related reporting obligations.
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- OM Group to Acquire Borchers GmbH
(CNN Money)
As it moves forward with its long-range portfolio transformation and growth strategy, OM Group, Inc. today announced that it has agreed to acquire Borchers GmbH, a leading Germany-based specialty coatings additive supplier. The Borchers operations will be integrated with OMG's existing Advanced Organics business.
With headquarters in Langenfeld, Germany, Borchers has production operations in France and is supported by regional technical service centers in Germany, the United States and China. The company has more than 90 employees and is represented in about 130 countries through a global sales network.
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- Hamburg Port Sees Growth Rate Easing
(Reuters)
Growth in trade handled at Hamburg port is likely to slow slightly in the second half of 2007. "We expect a little slowdown in the second half of this year," said Juergen Sorgenfrei, chairman of Port of Hamburg Marketing, an organisation backed by the city authorities and port operators which compiles statistics on the port and promotes it.
"This is just the world economy," Sorgenfrei added. "Overall, there is a lot of vitality in foreign trade," Hamburg Chamber of Commerce chief Karl-Joachim Dreyer agreed. "The US has perhaps weakened a little but China is in no way weakening. The east Asian area has not weakened."
Hamburg is Europe's second-biggest container port after Rotterdam and handles around 10 per cent of Germany's foreign trade.
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- Healthways Shares Up on Deal in Germany
(Forbes)
Shares of disease management program administrator Healthways Inc. rose Thursday after the company said its subsidiary signed a deal with a German health insurer.
Subsidiary Healthways International GmbH signed a three-year agreement to provide Deutsche Angestellten Krankenkasse with health and care support programs to members with chronic diseases in the Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemburg regions of Germany. The contract is effective January 1.
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- Bayer Buys Citracal Business from Mission Pharmacal
(Reuters)
Bayer has agreed to buy the Citracal line of over-the-counter calcium supplements from U.S. Mission Pharmacal Company for an undisclosed sum, the German drug and chemicals company said on Thursday. The acquisition, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, will increase Bayer Consumer Care's market presence in the United States, the world's largest OTC market.
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- Arrow Expands Role as Distributor for German Company
(Newsday.com)
Arrow Electronics Inc. in Melville has been chosen as the exclusive North American distributor for a German company's electronics-products business. Previously Arrow, a Melville electronic-components company, distributed connector parts for Conec in Canada. The new agreement expands that distribution to include the United States and Mexico. Conec's parts are used in the electronic and communications industries.
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- German Company Locating in Cherokee County
(TheState.com)
Bericap, a German producer of specialized plastic closures, will build a manufacturing plant in the Upstate Corporate Industrial Park in Cherokee County. Bericap will invest about $20 million and initially will hire about 45 full-time operators and management personnel locally. Construction of the first phase building, consisting of 90,000 square feet, will begin this year with completion set for full production in early 2008.
The S.C. plant will be the company’s third North American facility in 11 years. The existing plants are in Ontario, California, and Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
