Arubis Acquiring Luvata’s Rolled Products Division

Luvata, a metals and manufacturing company headquartered in London, has signed an agreement to sell its Rolled Products division to Aurubis AG, a Hamburg, Germany-based copper producer and recycler. According to Luvata, the division being sold produces about 160,000 metric tons of copper and copper-alloy sheets, strips and plates per year. The division employs 1,100 people at production facilities in the United States, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy.

According to a Luvata announcement, the sale follows a restructuring program the company began in 2005. The company says that the sale will allow it to focus its resources on emerging markets and engineered products.

“Our program of restructuring has involved major acquisitions as well as divestitures.” says John Peter Leesi, CEO and president of Luvata Group. “This sale is a good strategic move for Luvata. The global economic upturn, combined with Luvata’s focus on growth markets, presents significant business opportunities and allows us to focus on what we do best: technology-driven, high value-added solutions. The sale of the Rolled Products division gives Luvata greater focus, agility and resources to make the most of that.”

“Our Rolled Products business will be ideally placed for its future as a part of a vertically integrated business within Aurubis. We’re very happy with the outcome of what has been a detailed sale-and-acquisition process,” Leesi adds.

The facilities that are part of the sale include plants in Zutphen, Netherlands; Finspång and Västerås, Sweden; Mortara, Italy; and Buffalo, N.Y. The company’s rolling mill and copper foundry in Pori, Finland also is included in the sale, although the majority of the manufacturing facility in Pori will remain with Luvata’s Special Products division.

Luvata will continue to buy and process approximately 200,000 metric tons of copper per year, as well as other metals.