ABB Group - Corporate Affairs

Corporate Affairs

In the early 1990s ABB purchased Combustion Engineering (C-E), headquartered in Stamford and Norwalk, Connecticut, a leading U.S. firm in the development of conventional fossil fuel power and nuclear power supply systems to break into the North American market. Klaus Agthe was CEO of the US operation at the time. Continuing with its expansion plans, ABB purchased Elsag Bailey, a process automation group, in 1997 which included Bailey Controls, Hartmann & Braun, and Fischer & Porter. This was the largest acquisition to date in ABB's history.

ABB bought International Combustion Ltd from Rolls-Royce in 1997.

ABB's boiler and fossil fuel businesses were purchased by Alstom in 2000, and its nuclear business was purchased by Westinghouse Electric Company in 2000. In 2000 ABB also signed a contract for the delivery of equipment and services for two North Korean nuclear powerplants to be supplied under an agreement with the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), a consortium formed in 1995 by the governments of the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union. ABB formally divested from a joint venture named ABB-Alstom Power in 2000, and sold its interest in conventional power generation systems to Alstom Power. ABB's nuclear business was sold to BNFL and merged into Westinghouse Electric Company.

In 2001 ABB was ranked as number one on the Dow Jones corporate sustainability index for the third year in a row.

In 2002 ABB asked Lindahl, the company's former chief executive, to return some of his $50 million retirement pay, which its board called excessive. ABB also asked its former chairman Percy Barnevik to pay back part of his $87 million pension package. The size of the pensions was disclosed at the same time as ABB's $691 million net loss for 2001 made headlines and drew sharp criticism in Switzerland and Sweden.

ABB's Building Systems business unit was sold off in 2004 to Capvis, a Swiss private equity company, as part of ABB's strategy to focus on power and automation technologies. ABB's building systems businesses in Australia and Hong Kong were sold off the year before, in May 2003, to Downer EDI Limited. Building Systems provided services for building facilities encompassing indoor air quality, building automation as well as power distribution and management.

Financial debt and lingering asbestos liability brought ABB to the brink of bankruptcy in the early 2000s. In 2006 ABB returned to financial health by settling its asbestos liability regarding claims that were filed against ABB's U.S. subsidiaries, Combustion Engineering and Lummus Global. In August 2007 Lummus Global was sold to CB&I.

In December 2008, ABB acquired Ber-Mac Electrical and Instrumentation to expand its presence in western Canada's oil and gas industries. Ber-Mac Electrical and Instrumentation has been in the business of supplying electrical power and instrumentation equipment and services, both domestically and to international markets since 1980. Ber-Mac provides its clients with expertise in industrial automation, electrical and instrumentation design, process optimization, panel fabrication and field services. It is particularly strong in the Oil & Gas industry. Ber-Mac’s value proposition in engineering expertise and service capabilities is highly respected throughout Western Canada, this was a key factor in ABB’s decision to acquire the firm. This acquisition significantly expanded ABB’s presence in Western Canada to more than 760 employees in over 20 locations.

In 2009 ABB realigned its automation divisions to enhance growth opportunities. As of January 1, 2010, the business units in the Automation Products and Robotics divisions were regrouped into two new divisions – Discrete Automation and Motion, and Low Voltage Products. The Process Automation division remained unchanged except for the addition of the instrumentation business from the Automation Products division.

In May 2010, ABB acquired Ventyx for more than $1 billion from Vista Equity Partners.

In 2011, on May 9 ABB announced acquisition of Australian-based Mincom Limited from private equity firm Francisco Partners - to expand their enterprise software business for undisclosed sum. On July 29, 2011 acquisition has been finalised.

In 2011 ABB acquired Baldor Electric USA for $4.2 billion in an all-cash transaction

On January 30, 2012, ABB Group acquired Thomas & Betts in a $3.9 billion cash transaction.

On June 15, 2012, ABB completed acquisition of Tropos.