Schneider Electric to sell Telvent DTN to Swiss group TBG for $900 mn

French power-equipment maker Schneider Electric SE, today struck a deal to sell agriculture news and data-software provider Telvent DTN to private Swiss group TBG AG in a deal based on enterprise value of around $900 million (€840 million).

The sale price of $900 million would allow Schneider to recover most of what it paid to acquire Spanish software developer for smart electricity grids, Telvent GIT, SA. (See: Schneider Electric launches $2-billion bid for Spain's software firm Telvent)

The sale values the business at 17x its adjusted EBITA in Schneider Electric 2016 accounts.

With the Telvent DTN disposal, Telvent's total divestment of other non-core units like transportation and IT services in the past two years amount to €1 billion.

Schneider will retain from the Telvent acquisition a leading portfolio of technologies and software for advanced grid management, pipeline management, geographical information systems and SCADA generating revenues of more than €200 million in 2016.

Schneider had acquired DTN as part of its purchase of Telvent, but in October last year, the Paris-based company announced a strategic review of the business, and concluded that the unit was not a core part of the group.

Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, DTN owns the monthly agricultural periodical Progressive Farmer magazine. The magazine was founded in Winston, North Carolina, in 1886 by Leonidas Lafayette Polk to provide the latest information on crop and livestock production.

DTN provides real-time market, news and weather information services for agricultural and energy markets and had revenues of $213 million last year.

It provides on-demand market information, commodity cash prices, industry news and in-depth analysis, and location-specific weather to more than 600,000 subscribers across related commodity markets every day through mobile devices, Internet, satellite, and print.

Based in the western suburbs of Paris, Schneider Electric was founded in 1836 by two brothers, Eugène and Adolphe Schneider who began by manufacturing electric motors and locomotives.

Today, it has become a global leader in power and control solutions mainly through the over 18 strategic acquisitions it has made since the past 135 years.

The company is a specialist in integrated solutions across multiple market segments that include energy and infrastructure, industrial processes, building automation, and data centres / networks, as well as a broad presence in residential applications.