Kalyani Group buys German engg firm RSB

The $2.1 billion Kalyani Group, a leader in the auto component sector in India, today announced the acquisition of RSBconsult (RSB), Germany as a strategic step towards boosting its presence in the wind energy sector.
The deal size was not disclosed.

RSB is a design-and-consulting house with more than 150 man years of cumulative and international experience in the wind industry.

Announcing the acquisition, B N Kalyani, chairman, Kalyani Group said, "We are already present in the wind energy sector, both as a wind farm operator as well as a supplier of components. With  the acquisition of RSB, the Kalyani Group will have a strong  and experienced design and engineering team that would take care of product technology, while the Kalyani Group will bring in its well-established global supply chain capabilities and engineering skills to drive the  global business model and also manage Asia Pacific markets and operations from India.

"Wind turbines require a number  of forged, machined and other metal components. Our foray into this business  will therefore  provide  immense opportunities  within the  group to  create  a  global  component supply to the OEMs and Tier I companies in this industry."

Dr Andreas Reuter, managing director, RSB said, "There  are  several complimentary capabilities that Kalyani group brings to the table that will help  establish  a  globally competitive  business  model  in  this highly engineering intensive industry."

The annual size of  the wind energy sector business is about 20,000MW  globally and 2,000MW in India. Global long-term growth rates are  expected to be over 16% and by 2010, global market would be 30,000MW. The market is globally expanding and all studies point to its long-term prospects. The Kalyani Group plans to initially focus on Europe and India, and expand to other key markets of the world such as US and China by 2010.