As announced in April, the Belgian Groupe Fabricom, a subsidiary of Tractebel (the energy arm of Suez) acquires the three Sulzer Infra core businesses (Building Services, Engineering- Contracting and Infrastructure Services), which accounted in 2000 for CHF 1.4 billion, which is more than 90% of Sulzer Infra sales totalling CHF 1.5 billion. All 5100 Sulzer Infra personnel will be taken over under the existing terms of employment. The non-core activities of Sulzer Infra have already been divested: Neef GmbH with around 250 employees to the Lapp Group of Germany, while the consulting division (M+M Consultants AG, ProLog GmbH and Sulzer Energieconsulting AG) totalling around 220 employees is now an independent enterprise.

Sulzer Infra will be doing business in future under the name of Axima, long-established in the Benelux countries, Great Britain, France and other European markets.

Sulzer Infra will strengthen Groupe Fabricom’s technical infrastructure services in building and industrial installations, maintenance and facility management through its complementary geographic presence and long-standing customer base.

Closure of the Sulzer Infra divestiture and the recently announced sale of Sulzer Textil to Promatech, Italy, mark the main milestones in Sulzer’s strategic divestiture program. The divestiture of Sulzer Burckhardt is currently in course of preparation.