May 15, 2019
By Christoph Steitz, Arno Schuetze and Tom Käckenhoff
FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF (Reuters) – Finland’s Kone is assessing the viability of a bid for Thyssenkrupp’s 14 billion euro ($15.7 billion) elevators division even as the German conglomerate pursues plans to list it on the stock exchange, four people familiar with the matter said.
Thyssenkrupp, in a major strategic u-turn, last week ditched a plan to spin off its capital goods business after months of mounting shareholder scepticism, instead opted to list its most profitable elevator division to rake in badly needed cash.
“We’ve been saying for years that consolidation would make sense in our industry and our thinking hasn’t changed,” a spokeswoman for Kone said, declining to comment further.
(Additional reporting by Edward Taylor in Frankfurt, Joern Poltz in Munich, Anne Kauranen in Oslo and John Miller in Zurich; Editing by Tom Sims)
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