A buyer has been found for yet another business sector of aluminium giant Rio Tinto (London / UK; www.riotinto.com), which merged with Alcan. Machine manufacturer Schweiter Technologies (Horgen / Switzerland; www.schweiter.com) will acquire Alcan Composites (Sins / Switzerland) for USD 349m. Expectations are for the transaction to be completed by year’s end, according to an ad hoc report. The deal still needs to be discussed with employee representatives and meet the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities.

Schweiter wants to operate its new acquisition as an independent unit alongside the existing “SSM Textile Machinery” and “Ismeca Semi-Conductor” divisions, with the aim of “speeding up” business development. No organisational or managerial changes are planned, which means Georg Reif will remain CEO. The Swiss company said the takeover of Alcan Composites, which supplies consumer-related capital goods, would complete its portfolio by balancing out the cycles of the two existing divisions. Schweiter is also looking at additional potential acquisitions.

Alcan Composites employs 1,700 workers in 16 production plants located in Switzerland, Germany, the United States, South America, China and India. The company posted consolidated sales of USD 859m and EBITDA of USD 88m in 2008, according to pro-forma figures. By comparison, in the first eight months of this year sales amounted to USD 394m whereas EBITDA stood at USD 36m. The company said business grew by 20% between 2006 and 2008.

Alcan Composites considers itself to be the world market leader for core materials for sandwich composite structures, especially for wind energy plants. The company is also active in the fields of composite panels for high-quality facades and display applications.