Following Siemens' acquisition of VA Tech, the Siemens Power Transmission and Distribution Group (PTD, headquartered in Erlangen, Germany) will take over the Transmission &Distribution Division (T&D) of the Austrian company.

"By integrating VA Tech T&D we are not just improving our market position. We are strengthening our global presence, increasing our know-how and placing ourselves in even closer contact with our customers," stated Dr. Udo Niehage, president of the Siemens PTD Group. PTD will integrate the entire T&D switchgear, transformer and automation solutions business into its own High Voltage, Transformers, Energy Automation and Service Divisions. With a workforce of about 5400, VA Tech T&D posted global sales of EUR 1.1 billion in fiscal 2004.

The acquisition of VA Tech T&D's Switchgear subdivision (its largest) will consolidate Siemens' leading position on the market for high-voltage products and systems. The addition of more research, development and manufacturing facilities to the High Voltage Division will expand Siemens' knowledge base, will boost capacity for local service business, and give PTD even closer contact with customers, such as in France, Italy, the Middle East and North Africa. PTD also will jointly develop products for higher voltage levels, such as new 1000-kV circuit breakers, which power providers in China, for instance, are increasingly demanding.

The takeover of T&D's Transformers Division will further strengthen the position of Siemens PTD as Number Two in the global power transformer market. The move will have a particularly positive impact on PTD's transformer sales in the United States, where VA Tech T&D has long successfully supplied transformers from its manufacturing plant in Weiz, Austria, to prominent American utility companies.

VA Tech facilities in other countries will extend the existing wide coverage of Siemens' own transformer plants and enable the company to supply transformers from locations outside PTD's previous domain, such as in Mexico and South China. With more manufacturing plants available, Siemens will be able to offer greater flexibility on delivery schedules and build more transformers in parallel, when needed. The takeover of VA Tech's transformer plants and existing technology will give Siemens PTD even greater potential for delivering innovative solutions. Moreover, its substantially bigger purchasing volume will generate cost benefits.

The integration of VA Tech T&D's SAT Group will further strengthen Siemens PTD's global leadership in the field of energy automation. Innovative substation control and protection solutions neatly round out the PTD portfolio and offer consistency from the bay level to network control centers. Siemens PTD also anticipates additional benefits from the marketing of automation solutions from VA Tech's product range through the global sales network of its own Energy Automation Division.

Siemens PTD will transfer the existing service activities of VA Tech T&D to its own Service Division and integrate them into its global network of service centers, located close to customers. As a result of the much larger installed base of products and systems, PTD will substantially expand and broaden its customer services. Two new service centers are planned and other service centers will be enlarged. The combined service team will provide worldwide services for all existing and new products and systems of both companies. An exchange of experience and best-practice sharing will enable the substantially expanded PTD Service Division to offer individually tailored services throughout the lifetime of products, power systems or entire power transmission and distribution networks. These services include network planning, training, after-sales service and logistics as well as maintenance, modernization, asset management and operation.