STEAG New Energies GmbH, Saarbrücken/Germany, a subsidiary of Essen-based energy company STEAG GmbH, has established a joint venture together with Karl Uhl GmbH, Bochum/Germany, a leading business in the field of industrial compressed air technology.
The aim of the new STEAG UHL Druckluft-Versorgung GmbH is to expand the compressed air contracting business in Germany by combining the strengths of the two partners. STEAG holds 70 % of the shares in the joint venture, and Karl Uhl GmbH the remaining 30 % (Figure 1).
The transaction was carried out in the mutual conviction that by combining the entrepreneurial strengths of the two enterprises they will be able to act even more effectively in the future. “STEAG New Energies already offers its customers precisely tailored energy and compressed air solutions today. By investing in the joint venture, we are further strengthening our technical expertise in this area,” says Thomas Billotet, spokesman for the management of STEAG New Energies.
Karl Uhl GmbH looks back on a 90-year tradition as a highly specialized family business. “The product range extends from compressed air generation, conditioning and distribution through complete electrical, measuring and control technology to the ventilation of compressed air systems and heat recovery,” says Managing Director Peter Uhl. Uhl is contributing this expertise and its after-sales service, which is particularly experienced in issues of plant monitoring and maintenance, to the new company.
The strengths of the two future partners include the development and implementation of individual solutions tailored exactly to the needs of the respective customer in terms of system design and energy efficiency. “With the new company, STEAG’s range of services will again be significantly expanded so that in future we will be able to offer customers the entire range of technical solutions for power generation and the efficient operation of energy-intensive plants from a single source,” says Rüdiger Sass, who will take on the management of the new company together with Peter Uhl.
Both partners are convinced of the strategic importance of the cooperation because, thanks to the bundling of competencies, the new company will be able to meet the growing demand for integrated energy concepts, especially for industrial customers or for municipal and rural utilities, even better and more individually than before. (STEAG/Si.)