Siemens buys Israel's Solel in $418M deal

Munich, Germany-based Siemens (NYSE:SI) said today it is acquiring Israel’s Solel Solar Systems for about $418 million to boost its position in the growing solar thermal market.

Siemens, one of the world's largest electronics and industrial engineering firms, is buying the solar thermal company from the London-based investment firm Ecofin and another unnamed investor.

Ecofin, which has also invested in Imperium Renewables and Airtricity, invested $105 million in Solel's first financing round in the first quarter of 2008.

The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2009. As the Cleantech Group reported in September, Siemens outbid companies including Areva and Alstom (see Solar regroups with $228M in new capital this week).

Siemens makes steam turbines for solar thermal power plants. Solel Solar is considered to be a leading supplier of solar receivers—key components of parabolic trough power plants, and also specializes in planning and constructing solar fields (see Solel opens solar reflector plant in Finland and Solel's new 553 MW solar thermal plant).

The more than 500-employee company, which had revenue of nearly $90 million for the first half of the current fiscal year ending June 30, had reportedly been looking for a buyer for the past six months.

With the acquisition, Siemens plans to be able to offer components for the construction of parabolic trough power plants from a single source, while further enhancing the efficiency of these plants.

The market for solar thermal power plants is expected to have double-digit growth until 2020, with volume of more than €20 billion ($30 billion), according to Siemens. The growth areas are expected to be in the United States, South Africa, Australia, Spain, India, North Africa and the Middle East.

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