MAN Diesel & Turbo acquires city firm MaxWatt Turbines

The German maker of large-bore diesel engines and turbomachinery has presence in Vadodara and Aurangabad

Germany-based maker of large-bore diesel engines and turbomachinery MAN Diesel & Turbo SE (MDT), a wholly-owned subsidiary of MAN SE (part of Volkswagen AG), has acquired Bengaluru-based MaxWatt Turbines for an undisclosed sum.

MaxWatt Turbines is specialised in engineering, production of steam turbines for applications in power generation and mechanical drives.

The acquisition has resulted in MaxWatt’s integration into the turbo business of MDT. The new entity will operate under the name MAN Turbomachinery India. The company has a manufacturing facility in Bengaluru. Around 150 employees of MaxWatt will be retained by MDT along with the current management team.

“By acquiring MaxWatt, we will expand our portfolio and add steam turbines for numerous standard applications to our existing high-end product range. At the same time, we will gain access to new customer groups and market segments,” Uwe Lauber, CEO and Chief Sales Officer, MAN Diesel & Turbo SE told Business Standard.

He said MaxWatt’s range of products will be fully integrated into MAN Diesel & Turbo’s portfolio after the merger. MAN’s workforce in India will increase to more than 650 employees. With this acquisition, Bengaluru will be MAN Diesel’s first steam turbine production site in India.

The company will cater to turbine requirement of sectors like sugar, biomass, paper, fertilizer and captive power plants. MaxWatt has an annual capacity to produce 75 turbines per annum. In 2014, the company reported 20 per cent growth in sales to Rs  105 crore. It also exports steam turbines to Korea and Japan.

“MaxWatt customers will profit from an extended product range, a worldwide sales and service network and the know-how of a global player, all of which will be gained thanks to this merger,” C G Venkatesh, managing director of MaxWatt said.

The company will continue to export steam turbines from its Bengaluru facility, he said.

MAN Diesel already has presence in India with a large number of turbomachinery installations and runs a service shop for turbo machinery in Vadodara in addition to an engineering and production centre for large diesel engines in Aurangabad. Its clients in India include ONGC, Indian Navy and Coast Guard, among others. Its Indian operations contributed around Rs 300 crore in sales turnover in 2014.