Siemens deal to sell its logistics business ‘imminent’ -sources

ZURICH, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Siemens (SIEGn.DE) is very close to selling its logistics business, sources have told Reuters, with a deal likely to be “imminent”.

Siemens’s supervisory board is due to meet on Wednesday, ahead of the company’s earnings on Thursday, and will make a decision on the successful bidder, the sources said.

The company declined to comment.

In September, people close to the matter told Reuters that Siemens was preparing to its logistics business, which makes gear used for unloading, conveying, sorting and coding parcels as well as preparing letters for delivery.

A deal could be worth roughly 500 million euros ($571.65 million), they said.

The sale would be the latest divestment by the German industrial conglomerate which has been simplifying its business in a shift to become a more focused technology company.

As part of the shake-up, Siemens sold its Yunex Traffic division to Italian infrastructure group Atlantia (ATL.MI) for 950 million euros last month.

Toyota’s (6201.T) Vanderlande, Honeywell (HON.O), Kion (KGX.DE), Daifuku (6383.T), Interroll (INRN.S) and the Netherlands’ MHS Houten (VanRiet) are competitors for Siemens’ logistics business and could become potential bidders.

Siemens’ airport logistics business – which makes machines that handle baggage and cargo – is not currently up for sale, but will be offloaded once air traffic has rebounded from the hit it took in the pandemic, sources told Reuters in September.

($1 = 0.8747 euros)

Reporting by Alexander Huebner and Andres Gonzalez Estebaran, writing by John Revill, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Jane Merriman

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