Wärtsilä is rationalising its business at a time when ship newbuilding orders are in decline by selling non-core divisions
Jacob Waitz Industrie has acquired JovyAtlas from Wärtsilä to become a market leader in transformers, resistors and uninterruptable power systems (UPS) used in marine and industrial sectors.
JovyAtlas has been manufacturing UPS units, rectifiers, power inverters, frequency transformers and resistors with related services for many industries for more than 70 years. It became part of Wärtsilä during the acquisition of L-3 Communications MSI in 2015.
JovyAtlas is located in Jemgum in Germany, and currently has some 125 employees. It had annual revenue of €20M (US$23M) in 2019.
Wärtsilä Marine Systems president and head of portfolio business Tamara de Gruyter said this sale was part of the company’s main strategy for divesting non-core assets.
“The main driver for Wärtsilä is to focus on creating a stronger and simpler core while making sure the non-core businesses get an opportunity under a new ownership to be able to drive their business success and better serve their customers,” she said.
“We are sure that JovyAtlas finds a good home with Jacob Waitz Industrie, which has long heritage in the German industry.”
In response to the purchase, Jacob Waitz Industrie owners Friedrich von Waitz and Harald von Waitz both stated, “We are looking forward to developing JovyAtlas, alongside our portfolio company Polyma Energiesysteme to become a market leading provider of UPS, transformers and resistors. We are ready to leverage the full potential of the firm.”
Completion of the transaction for Wärtsilä’s 100% stake in JovyAtlas is expected 1 October 2020.
This comes as the global coronavirus pandemic has impacted demand for ship automation and power systems due to lower shipbuilding orders and retrofits.
Wärtsilä’s portfolio business consists of multiple business units, which are run independently with the aim of accelerating performance improvement and unlocking value through divestments or other strategic alternatives.
These business units comprise entertainment systems, special products covering power converter products and UPS systems, tank control systems, water and waste, hydropower solution and turbine service businesses.
JovyAtlas’ maritime range includes UPS units for power distribution on merchant ships, passenger and offshore vessels and specialised ships. Typical applications are navigation and communication, automation and monitoring systems, propulsion controls, safety systems and large centralised or small distributed UPS systems.
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