ABB to sell Power Grids to Hitachi, revamp business structure

ZURICH (Reuters) - ABB reached a deal with Japan's Hitachi to sell its Power Grids division, with the Swiss engineering group adding it plans to return net cash proceeds of $7.6-7.8 billion from selling the 80.1 percent stake in the unit to shareholders.

The Zurich-based company, which will initially retain 19.1 percent of the division, also said on Monday it would be modifying the structure of remaining businesses, resulting in roughly $500 million annual run-rate cost reductions across the group following $500 million in non-operational restructuring charges.

(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Christoph Steitz)