IWKA sells Bopp & Reuther Messtechnik

First step toward reducing process technology: future focus on robotics, automotive and packaging technologies.

As part of IWKA's strategy to focus on core business areas, the Group has sold three companies and three other process technology business entities in which it held an interest, retroactive to January 1, 2004. Bopp & Reuther Messtechnik GmbH, Speyer, WPD Wartungs- und Prüfungsdienst GmbH, Speyer, and MARCON Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg, have been sold. The three
companies had total sales revenue of EUR 16.4 million during the past fiscal year and presently employ 150 persons. In future, the companies will be independently managed by their respective current management boards. The parties agreed to keep the conditions of the sale confidential. By selling these companies to their management, IWKA has enabled them to establish a clear entrepreneurial perspective, while demonstrating that it is determined to quickly and consistently implement its new strategy. IWKA's medium-term plan is to withdraw from the process technology business and to concentrate in future on three growth markets: robotics, automotive and packaging technologies.