Boliden Nordic Brass - green light from competition authorities
8/15/2003 8:00 AM EST
Boliden Nordic Brass has received approval from the Swedish Competition
Authority. Approval from the Finnish Competition Authority has already
been received. The company, founded by Boliden and Hexagon through a
joint venture between Boliden Gusum AB and Nordic Brass AB, will now be
able to commence operations from 1 September, 2003.
"It's positive that the process involving the competition authorities is
complete, so we can now begin the fusion between the two companies. The
objective is to implement the majority of changes before the end of
2003, enabling synergies to be fully achieved during 2004," says the
company's CEO, Göran Ek.
The new company creates a strong Nordic player with the right
characteristics to meet increasing competition from the European brass
industry. The annual turnover of the new company is estimated to be 500
million SEK (approx. $60 million). Production will be concentrated at
the Gusum plant. Operations in Västerås are to be wound up and some
production equipment moved to Gusum. Production costs of Boliden Nordic
Brass will be at the same level as the most profitable brass companies
in Europe.
A consequence of rationalising production has been a surplus in labour
at both plants. In total, 160 persons are affected. Initial discussions
have commenced with the relevant unions and personnel in both companies.
For more information, please contact:
Göran Ek, CEO Boliden Nordic Brass: tel + 46 21 19 88 00
Hexagon AB is a multinational engineering group with the long-term
ambition of positioning itself as number one or number two within its
strategic sectors. The operation is divided into four business areas:
Hexagon Automation, Hexagon Engineering, Hexagon Metrology and Hexagon
Polymers. The group's targets are to increase earnings per share after
tax by at least 15 per cent p.a., and achieve a return on capital
employed higher than 15 per cent over the business cycle. Current
turnover amounts to more than 7 GSEK p.a.