Siemens to acquire 25 percent stake in BGZ Beteiligungsgesellschaft Zukunftsenergien AG

Siemens is acquiring a roughly 25 percent stake in BGZ Beteiligungsgesellschaft Zukunftsenergien AG (BGZ AG). The investment will enable the company to ensure its access to further innovative projects in the field of sustainable power generation and thereby expand its portfolio of products, systems and services. “Siemens is becoming greener. Sustainable power generation is one of our key growth fields,” said Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher. Headquartered in Husum, Germany, BGZ AG develops, finances and operates regenerative power generation facilities like wind, solar and biomass power plants. With some 140 employees as well as subsidiaries and joint ventures in Europe and the U.S., the company generated revenue of about €50 million in 2008. Regulatory approval of the transaction is still pending. Both companies have agreed not disclose the purchase price.
Siemens will invest in BGZ via its equity company Siemens Project Ventures GmbH (SPV). “The knowhow that BGZ has gained through long years of experience in developing wind power projects will make a vital contribution to the ongoing expansion of our renewables business,” said SPV head Hans-Joachim Schulz. “In Siemens, we’re pleased to have found a strong, international partner to help us meet our financing requirements in the high-growth market for regenerative energies. Together with Siemens, we’ll intensify our efforts to enter new markets,” added Volker Friedrichsen, BGZ’s CEO, founder and main shareholder.
SPV and BGZ AG have been cooperating since 2006, when SPV and the BGZ subsidiary WKN Windkraft Nord AG established the joint venture Innovative Wind Concepts GmbH in order to develop and implement wind power projects in Central and Eastern Europe. The House of Future Energies, which BGZ initiated, provides the company with a center of competence focused on the use of regenerative energy sources. Engineers, business administrators, scientists and lawyers work hand-in-hand at the facility.
Its investment in BGZ AG marks a further step in Siemens’ efforts to strengthen its Environmental Portfolio. With green technologies accounting for slightly less than €19 billion in sales or about one-fourth of its total revenue for fiscal 2008, Siemens is the world’s largest supplier of green infrastructure solutions. The company is already the leading supplier in the area of offshore wind farms, having installed over 7,800 wind turbines – with a total output of more than 8,800 megawatts – worldwide by the end of 2008.
At the end of 2008, the BGZ group boasted an installed base of over 950 megawatts in the wind power sector alone. The Husum company’s international business, in particular, has grown substantially over the last few years. Customers of the BGZ group, which has been established in the renewable energies market for over 20 years, now include international financial investors and major energy suppliers.