The Siemens group (www.siemens.com; Munich, Germany) has officially confirmed plans to sell Mannesmann Plastics Machinery (www.mannesmann-plastics.com; Munich, Germany) and several other companies that partly belonged to Atecs Mannesmann for EUR 1.69 bn to US financial investor Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR, www.kkr.com; New York). The companies will be brought into a Luxembourg-based holding company, Demag Holding, in which KKR will have 81% and Siemens 19%. MPM, which includes machinery manufacturers Krauss-Maffei Plastics Machinery, Demag Ergotech, Berstorff, Netstal, Billion and Van Dorn, has annual sales of EUR 1 bn. Plans to sell the machinery group to Apax Capital partners fell through in October 2001.