PSI Is Target for Electric Equipment Makers on Smart Grid Boom By Richard Weiss - Jun 8, 2011 4:10 PM GMT+0200 PSI AG of Germany has become a potential takeover target for electrical equipment makers because of booming demand for software to control energy flows, Chief Executive Officer Harald Schrimpf said. “Almost all of the large equipment makers have spoken to us, in particular those that have made acquisitions in this market recently,” Schrimpf said in an interview in Frankfurt on June 7, declining to provide names. “We concluded that for the next two to three years, it’s best for our customers and shareholders to remain an independent company,” Schrimpf said. Rising power prices and efforts to promote renewable energy and electric vehicles have increased demand for “smart grid” systems, to save electricity by using technologies such as computerized meters to manage electricity use. German power for next-year delivery is near the highest price in two years as Europe’s biggest economy accelerates its nuclear exit. “We will see booming demand for our solutions,” Schrimpf said. The company aims to reach record sales of about 170 million euros ($248 million) this year, and plans to increase revenue to 250 million euros by 2015, adding about 600 employees, he said. Schrimpf aims to add market share by spending 15 million euros to 20 million euros on acquisitions this year and a similar amount next year. “We look at places the larger companies don’t -- in the less transparent markets,” he said. Industry Acquisitions Schneider Electric SA (SU), the world’s biggest maker of low- and medium-voltage equipment, on June 1 said it agreed to buy Spain’s Telvent GIT SA (TLVT) for about 1.4 billion euros to double its software development capacity. Telvent competes with PSI in software to control medium-voltage power grids, together with privately held OSI Software Inc. of San Leandro, California, and Nanjing Automation Research Institute, an affiliate of China State Grid Corp. ABB Ltd. (ABBN), the world’s largest maker of power-transmission gear, on May 9 said it agreed to acquire private equity owned Mincom to add to its offering of industrial software catering to clients in the energy and mining industries. ABB’s $1 billion acquisition of Ventyx, which makes software for monitoring smart grids, last year marked its expansion in industrial software. Siemens AG (SIE), Europe’s largest engineering company, predicted in September 2009 that it could secure 7 billion euros in new orders for smart grid products and services by 2014. PSI management and employees hold a combined 23.6 percent of the company’s shares, and RWE owns 17.8 percent. “As far as we know, RWE’s stake is not for sale,” Schrimpf said. PSI shares have advanced 67 percent in a year, compared with an 11 percent gain for the nine-stock MSCI Europe Software and Services Index. To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at rweiss5@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net.
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