Siemens in talks with Masdar for Tech Fund 2 stake

Germany's Siemens is negotiating with Masdar for a stake in Clean Tech Fund 2 that is being developed to invest in international technology companies.

The company already has a stake in $250 million (Dh919m) Masdar Clean Tech Fund 1, which was established in November 2006 in partnership with Credit Suisse, Consensus Business Group and Siemens.

"We are in Masdar Clean Tech 1 with a stake of $25m. We are innovation collaborator in the fund and help select the kind of technologies they go for and invest in. This is where we play our role. Clean Tech Fund 2 is coming up and we are in talks with Masdar on that. It is being developed and we are interested in it," Fergi Varghese, Middle East Director of Corporate Communications at Siemens, told Emirates Business at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

The Masdar Clean Tech Fund 1 deployed its capital in 2007 and 2008 taking strategic equity stakes in companies such as Segway, Halosource, Europlasma, Sulfurcell, Heliovolt, SIC Processing and EnerTech Environmental.

Varghese said Siemens is already seeing some good in Fund 1 investments across the world and is in talks with Masdar for a role in its Clean Tech Fund 2.

About Siemens-Masdar partnership, he explained: "We work quite closely with Masdar, because it is one of the most interesting initiatives in this place. It came at the same time we developed our energy efficiency and environment portfolio.

"Currently we are the only company that has the technology right through that energy conversion chain – from the part where you actually produce energy through to the transmission and distribution, industrial application, transportation, building technologies and all the way down to lighting. We also provide financial solutions for these large projects.

"For a company like us at the moment from this portfolio worldwide, we have turnover of about €19 billion (Dh91bn). We expect that to grow to about €25bn by 2011. Our turnover in the lower Gulf – the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Yemen – was €1.7bn last year."

Varghese also said Siemens continuously negotiates with investors in the region to form further partnerships in various areas, particularly in the energy sector. In the Gulf, he added, the company has installed a capacity of 7,600 megawatts. "We have quite a long history of building power plants throughout this region," he added.

When asked about the global slowdown's impact on the company's interests in the Gulf, Varghese said: "It is early to say, but I believe there will be an impact as we cannot be isolated or insulated. The Gulf is still a growth region. There is still a lot of urbanisation and there is still a lot of development. We are positive on the region's growth."

Siemens also announced its global profits for 2008 at the summit.

Chief Executive Officer Joachim Kundt said the company made a record profit of €77bn from its global businesses. He said approximately one quarter of the global revenues accounted for the company's energy and environment portfolio alone. The portfolio has an annual budget of €8bn.

Kundt said: "Today Siemens is the only company that offers solutions along the entire energy conversion value chain. As such, we are proud to present our extensive renewable energy portfolio at the World Future Energy Summit 2009. Siemens is highly committed to its environmental portfolio, which in 2008 generated just under €19bn, approximately one quarter of the company's total global revenue of €77bn."

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