By John Revill and Oliver Hirt<\/p>\n
ZURICH, March 13 (Reuters) – ABB is stepping up its acquisition drive and is open to pursuing more than one multi-billion dollar transaction, Chairman Peter Voser told Reuters, as the Swiss engineering group looks to speed \u200cup growth after years of divestments.<\/p>\n
Voser said ABB, which has a market cap of 125 billion Swiss francs ($159 billion), was evaluating \u200cacquisitions of up to several hundred million dollars, but was prepared to “step up” to bigger deals for the right target.<\/p>\n
“If you look at our balance sheet and the cash \u200bflow we produce every year, and the $5 billion coming in from the robotics divestment, we could also do more than one larger deal,” Voser said in an interview at ABB’s Zurich headquarters.<\/p>\n
The comments point to a more aggressive acquisition focus by ABB after years of sales, including the robotics division deal with SoftBank last year.<\/p>\n
Voser declined to comment on reports that ABB had considered bidding for French electrical equipment maker Legrand, a transaction that would \u200chave been the Swiss group’s biggest ever. Legrand has \u2060a market value of around $43 billion.<\/p>\n
“ABB has never done such a large deal but generally speaking I wouldn’t completely rule out a deal of that size in the future,” Voser said. However, he added that deals closer \u2060to its record $4.2 billion purchase of motor maker Baldor were more likely.<\/p>\n
BOOSTING GROWTH WITH M&A<\/p>\n
ABB, a competitor to Siemens and Schneider Electric, has recently focused on raising profit margins and offloading businesses outside electrification products used in areas like data centres and automation.<\/p>\n
Future deals would be focused on electrification, motion and automation, \u200bVoser said, \u200bwith the company “constantly in negotiations” on smaller transactions, while larger deals remain an \u200bactive topic at board and executive committee level.<\/p>\n
“We want \u200cto grow organically by 5-7% on average per year, but we have aspirations to grow more, and that will come through M&A,” he said, referring to sales.<\/p>\n
MIDDLE EAST CRISIS COULD HIT GLOBAL DEMAND<\/p>\n
While ABB has so far seen no major negative effects from the Middle East conflict, which began on the last day of February, Voser, a former CEO of energy firm Shell, warned the crisis risked an energy hit to the global economy, hurting demand and investment if it persists.<\/p>\n
“The longer it lasts, the more the global economy will suffer – you will get energy shortages, \u200cprices will go up, and that should have a direct impact on demand,” he \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n
Voser said that even if the conflict ended soon, complex energy systems would take \u200btime to restart.<\/p>\n
“To restart a refinery is not a one-day \u200bshow; it will take one or two months before the whole global energy supply system would be fully working \u200cagain,” he said.<\/p>\n