Larsen & Toubro sells British marine automation unit to Rolls-Royce Power

By TEAM VCC

  • 02 Dec 2020
Credit: Reuters

Larsen & Toubro Ltd, India’s biggest engineering company, has sold its UK-based marine automation services unit Servowatch Systems Ltd to Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG at an enterprise value of Rs 88.8 crore ($12 million).

The sale is part of the company’s strategy of divesting non-core units, L&T chief executive and managing director SN Subrahmanyan said in a statement.

Servowatch recorded revenue of Rs 50.42 crore for 2019-20. This constitutes just 0.03% of L&T’s consolidated revenue for the year, the Indian company said.

Servowatch supplies advanced integrated ship control systems to navies, commercial vessels and large yachts. It is headquartered in Heybridge, Essex, and has 44 employees in the UK and India.

The deal comes just months after L&T in August concluded the sale of its electrical and automation business to Schneider Electric.

L&T said the sale of the electrical and automation business as well as Servowatch is a part of its strategic portfolio review process.

The company continuously evaluates its business portfolio and takes capital allocation decisions from a long-term perspective, it added.

L&T had, in 2018, agreed to sell the electrical and automation business to a consortium of France-based Schneider Electric SE and Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings for Rs 14,000 crore ($2.1 billion).

The L&T group has interests in infrastructure, power, finance, real estate, defence, heavy engineering and hydrocarbon, among other sectors. It has identified four services businesses – information technology, technology, finance and real estate – as its core growth drivers.