Hamburg - Suzlon, the Indian manufacturer of
wind-generators, claimed victory Friday in the takeover struggle for
Repower, a fast-growing German builder of the giant machines.
Tulsi R Tanti, founder and chief of Suzlon Energy, said in a
telephone conference from Bombay, that he would become chairman of
the board at Repower.
The previous day, the rival bidder, French nuclear reactor builder
Areva, had portrayed itself as a joint and equal proprietor.
However, Tanti said the agreement would lead to Suzlon controlling
70 to 75 per cent of Repower shares with the rest held by multiple
investors. He said Areva had transferred its voting rights to Suzlon
while retaining ownership of the shares.
After a one-year freeze, Areva would be able to sell the shares to
Suzlon at any time 'at a fair market price.' On Thursday,
state-controlled Areva had only spoken of a guaranteed exit option
which would ensure it a profit of 350 million euros (470 million
dollars).
'Repower and Suzlon are going be in a leading position worldwide,'
said Tanti, a former textile manufacturer who branched out into
engineering for better returns. Wind power is booming amid world
efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
He said Repower, which currently assembles its wind generators
entirely from bought-in components, would not be consolidated into
the Suzlon group but would remain a separate company.
'The bottleneck is the suppliers,' said Tanti, explaining that
Suzlon had the necessary components. Repower is to open a plant next
year to make rotor blades, its first own-manufacturing operation.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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