Metso agrees to divest certain parts of its industrial rubber conveyor belt manufacturing and related sales and services operations in Northern Europe to ContiTech and Lutze Group

Metso has agreed to divest certain parts of its industrial rubber conveyor belt manufacturing and related sales and services operations. The operations comprise 27 locations with around 340 employees currently belonging to Metso’s Mining and Construction segment. The industrial rubber conveyor belt manufacturing and sales and services locations in Finland will be divested to ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group. The industrial rubber conveyor belt sales and services locations in Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and in Southern Sweden will be divested to Lutze Group. The price of the transaction will not be disclosed.

Industrial rubber conveyor belts and related services will continue to be an essential part of Metso’s offering to mining and construction industries also in the future. The planned divestment is part of Metso’s strategy to develop and simplify its current production capacity in Europe. The aim is to improve the competitiveness of the business and to further develop customer service. The sales and services operations planned to be divested serve other customer industries than mining and construction.

Completion of the planned divestment is expected to occur during Q4/2013. The planned divestment will have no material impact on Metso’s financial performance.

The ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group, a business unit under the ContiTech Division of the automotive supplier Continental AG, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of technical rubber products and is a specialist for plastics technology. The division develops and produces functional parts, components and systems for the automotive industry and other important industries. ContiTech has a workforce of approximately 28,000 employees. In 2012, it achieved sales of about €3.7 billion.

The LUTZE-Group is a family owned business with two industrial sectors. The conveyor business of Lutze Fördertechnik is focused on supplying and servicing its customers mainly with quality conveyor belts and spray coat wear protection. Lutze Kunststofftechnik engineers and manufactures polyurethane parts – also for wear protection - in its own plant in Germany. In 2012, net sales amounted to approximately € 25 million with around 160 employees.

Metso’s mining and construction professionals specialize in always bringing the right technology, processes, machinery and services to our customers in the aggregates production, construction, mining and minerals processing and in metal and waste recycling. Expect results.
www.metso.com/miningandconstruction

Metso is a global supplier of technology and services to customers in the process industries, including mining, construction, pulp and paper, power, and oil and gas. Our 30,000 professionals based in over 50 countries contribute to sustainability and profitability to customers worldwide. Metso’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd.

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