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- Published on Thursday, 12 February 2015 06:55
French electrical products manufacturer Schneider Electric has entered the East African market after fully acquiring a Kenyan firm, Power Technics Limited.
The deal, estimated at Sh1.6 billion and which was sealed last week, will give Schneider access to the regional market at a time when the East African countries have launched massive energy expansion projects.
A delegation of executives from Schneider, led by chairman and chief executive Jean-Pascal Tricoire, is in the country to finalise the transaction.
“We are very excited to have entered into this deal because it gives us direct access to a population of more than 250 million people in this region. We don’t expect any change in the business strategy of Power Technics Limited because having worked with them as our major partners in this region for more than a decade, we have already developed a common market approach,” Mr Tricoire said in an interview.
He declined to disclose the exact value of the transaction, saying the company was in the closed period ahead of the announcement of its financial results at the end of this month.
STRONG OUTFIT
Power Technics Limited has about 320 employees, all of whom have now been absorbed into the new company.
The acquisition will see Power Technics enlarge its markets in the region to cover Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia.
“This is what my dream was when I started this company 32 years ago – to build a strong outfit that would change people’s lives through innovative solutions and the creation of employment.
It is amazing that we are now attracting huge foreign investments into the country,” Power Techniques Limited chairman and founder Naresh Mehta said.
With a starting capital of Sh30,000, Mr Mehta set up Power Techniques in the early 1980s after five years of formal employment at Technical and Industrial Representation Limited.
The company has grown to become a leading provider of technology products. It has built data centres for Safaricom, Nation Media Group, Airtel Kenya, Equity Bank, Cooperative Bank, Coca-Cola, and Bidco, among others.
Source: Daily Nation
