Water utilities have had a big week, with high M&A activity and projects around the world. In addition, companies like FlowWorks continue to release new products to help utilities do their job more effectively and efficiently. Read about utilities and other players in this week’s water news below:
M&A/ Partnerships
- Canada’s Capstone Infrastructure Corporation paid £131.5 million for a 70% equity stake in Bristol Water and expects to achieve a total return on the investment “at the lower end of its targeted 10-14% range.” Suez said that through its Agbar subsidiary in Spain, it would enter into an operational and management agreement for Bristol that would include nominating the company’s chief executive and “access to the know-how and technological development of the group.”
http://www.globalwaterintel.com/news/2011/40/capstone-beats-japanese-rivals-take-bristol-water.html?source=email - HSBC has sold Cambridge Water to South Staffordshire plc for less than the £74.8 million it paid for the company just over two months ago.
http://www.globalwaterintel.com/news/2011/40/cambridgesouth-staffs-merger-cards-2012.html?source=email - Four firms (Hong Kong’s Hutchison Water, Brazil’s Odebrecht and Korea’s GS Engineering and Posco) have been shortlisted in the bid to acquire Inima, the water division of the Spanish construction giant, OHL.
http://www.desaldata.com/news/30081 - Heckmann Corporation announced the disposition of the current operations of its subsidiary, China Water & Drinks, Inc., through the sale of nine of its 25 Chinese legal entities to Pacific Water & Drinks (HK) Group Limited. Heckmann received 10% of the outstanding shares of PWD in connection with the disposition.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111003005554/en/Heckmann-Corporation-Divests-China-Water-Drinks
Projects
- BHP Billiton‘s proposed 200,000-280,000 m³/d desalination plant in southern Australia’s Upper Spencer Gulf has been approved with strict conditions during operation and well beyond the life of the Olympic Dam uranium mine.
http://www.desalination.biz/news/news_story.asp?id=6160&title=Olympic+Dam+desalination+plan+approved+with+conditions - China Three Gorges has signed a contract with the Government of Mauritius for the construction of the Bagatelle Dam across the Terre Rouge River in Mauritius. Construction is expected to start in December with an investment of $112m.
http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsctgpc-to-build-water-conservation-dam-in-mauritius - Power Plus Communications (PPC) and Siemens Metering, Communications & Services (MCS) have completed a pilot installation of smart water meters (which combines Siemens’ AMR water meters with PPC’s Broadband Powerline technology) at Chips Apartments in Manchester, UK.
http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsppc-siemens-complete-smart-metering-pilot-project-in-the-uk - Suez Environnement has won a €70 million 12-year contract to provide water distribution services to the coastal resort of Hyères in south-east France, replacing long-standing incumbent Veolia. Suez’s offer also includes the construction of a small desal facility on the Île de Porquerolles.
http://www.globalwaterintel.com/news/2011/40/hyeres-today-gone-tomorrow-veolia-out-after-135yrs.html?source=email - AdEdge Water Technologies received a contract from Sunrise Engineering to design and build three AdEdge WaterPOD containerised water treatment systems for Spring Creek Utilities in Nevada, US. Each WaterPOD will use AdEdge AD26 coagulation / filtration technology and consist of a separate, completely packaged, pre-piped, instrumented and automated system, and modular buildings with combined design flows.
http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsadedge-water-bags-contract-for-arsenic-water-treatment-systems - Brazilian water utility Corsan is to be given R$632m ($357m) to carry out water projects under the country’s PAC growth acceleration plan. Approximately R$384m will be allocated to wastewater collection and treatment projects, and R$249m will be used for potable water projects in the cities of Imbé, Canela and Pinhal.
http://www.water-technology.net/news/newscorsan-receives-funds-for-water-projects-in-brazil
Innovation/ New Products
- FlowWorks has a new data editing and analysis tool that can reportedly help water utilities streamline workflow data. The solution is designed to help gather, analyze and understand all forms of environmental monitoring data received from manufacturers’ flow and level meters, rain gauges and data systems.
http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsflowworks-launches-graphic-editing-tool-for-water-utilities - SPX has developed the APV FX SafeWater system for sanitation and CIP cleansing procedures in the food, beverage, dairy and pharmaceutical industries. APV FX SafeWater from SPX produces Hypochlorous acid (HOCL), which sanitizes without the need for heating.
http://www.filtsep.com/view/21214/apv-fx-safewater-offers-sustainable-natural-disinfection/ - WEDECO introduced the Quadron™ Ultra Violet (UV) system, a medium pressure UV system for safe drinking water in applications with space constraints. The new UV system has a footprint of 1200 mm (47 inches) × 1448 mm (57 inches) and includes patented OptiCone™ flow diverter technology.
http://www.filtsep.com/view/21210/wedeco-adds-medium-pressure-uv-disinfection/ - Hach Company announced Hach WIMS™ 7.2, the latest version of its Water Information Management Solution for Lean Operations, which features enhanced electronic reporting capabilities, additional integrations with Hach instruments and improved usability for configuring dashboards, input forms and variable lists. Hach WIMS is a software platform designed specifically for water and wastewater utilities.
http://www.waterefficiency.net/the-latest/hach-wims-operations.aspx
Other
- Shares in Xylem Inc., the water technology and services business due to be spun off from ITT Corporation, will begin trading on NYSE on a “when issued” basis on 13 October, with full trading due to start on 1st November.
http://www.globalwaterintel.com/news/2011/40/getting-root-xylems-new-logo.html?source=email - China is to invest up to 4 trillion yuan ($600 billion) over the next decade to overcome a huge water shortage that threatens the country’s economic growth.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gG5jnCXw_sZSiyVs5jI1EkaADpXA?docId=CNG.d9529d7f75a4ac19ba01d71e2ca6c731.401
Arti Patel is a Research Analyst at Cleantech Group.
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