Bosch to buy out Siemens in appliances JV BSH for $3 billion

Robert Bosch GmbH will acquire Siemens' 50 per cent stake in the home appliances joint venture Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH (BSH) for €3 billion, in a deal that would make BSH a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bosch Group

In addition, BSH will distribute $250 million to both Siemens and Bosch before the conclusion of the transaction, which is expected in the first half of calendar year 2015.

The boards of management and supervisory boards of Bosch and Siemens have approved the transaction, which still requires regulatory approval.

Once the transaction is completed, BSH will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bosch Group. Under the terms of the agreement, BSH will be allowed to manufacture and market household appliances under the Siemens brand over the long term.

"BSH has been a successful and profitable company for many years. Strategically and technologically, it is a perfect match for the Bosch Group," said Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH. 

Like the Bosch Group, BSH pursues a long-term, innovation-oriented strategy, is internationally positioned, and committed to good corporate citizenship, the two stated in a joint press release.

"The sale of our BSH stake is part of our drive to continue focusing very intensively on our core business. In a constantly strong partnership over the last few decades, Bosch and Siemens have made BSH a successful leader in the area of household appliances. By uniting continuity with new perspectives, I'm convinced that Bosch's complete acquisition of BSH will offer BSH's customers, distribution partners and employees a very solid and sustainable structure," said Siemens CFO Ralf P. Thomas. "The negotiations with Bosch were always constructive and based on a spirit of mutual trust," he added.

In 1967, Bosch and Siemens combined their activities in the area of household appliances to create the joint venture BSH. Since then, BSH has become Europe's largest producer of household appliances and a world-leader in its field, with revenue of about €10.5 billion in 2013 and around 50,000 employees worldwide. The BHS product portfolio comprises a wide range of household appliances, including everything from stoves, ovens and extractor hoods to dishwashers, washing machines, clothes dryers and combined refrigerator-freezers to small household devices such as vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, water kettles, clothes irons and hairdryers.

"BSH fits in very well with our guiding strategic principle: Technology for Life," explained Denner. With its products and services, the household appliance producer wants to leverage intelligent technologies, high levels of comfort and user-friendliness in order to make the lives of people around the world easier and more enjoyable, while conserving natural resources with the help of highly efficient devices.

Technologically, there are also opportunities for intensified cooperation between Bosch and BSH in the future-oriented field of the Internet of Things and Services, it added.