The sale to a private equity consortium including Candover Partners, JP Morgan Partners LLC and 3i Group, will net the company up to $US975million with the proceeds of the sale going towards ABB's refinancing plan, aimed at paying off the group's massive debt.
The plan includes the issue of 1.2billion new shares, worth some $US2.5billion; the launch of a bond scheme worth around e650milllion; and a $US1billion bank credit facility.
ABB expects the agreement for the sale to be signed before the end of this year and for the refinancing to stabilise the company's books until 2006. However, the restructure will still leave the company with around $US7.3billion debt.
