Finland’s Uponor exits UK infrastructure business

12 May 2008 17:21  [Source: ICIS news]

STOCKHOLM (ICIS news)--Finnish piping and plumbing firm Uponor Corp has sold its water, sewer and gas piping, infrastructure business in the UK and Northern Ireland to private equity firm 3i for around £100m (€196m/$126m), it said on Monday.

Uponor's infrastructure products are made of environmentally friendly and durable plastic materials. With the divestment of Uponor Ltd, its infrastructure services will focus on the Nordic countries.

“The reason is a lack of synergies between the infrastructure and the housing solutions businesses on this market. Also we could not capitalise on synergies with our Nordic operations,” said chief financial officer Jyri Luomakoski.

Uponor divested its North American infrastructure operations four years ago for the same reasons.

Net sales of the divested operations, which employed a total of 470, were €169m in 2007.

The company will now concentrate on housing solutions in Europe and North America, where it is one of the leading providers, with annual sales of €1bn. The infrastructure business in the Nordic countries is retained.

($1 = £1.96/€1 = £0.79)

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By: Sverker Nyman
44 20 8652 3214

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