According to a newspaper report, the Siemens drive division Innomotics is being sold to the US financial investor KPS Capital Partners for a good three billion euros.

The "Handelsblatt" newspaper referred to information from financial circles on Wednesday. KPS had recently been vying for Innomotics with the Japanese engine manufacturer Nidec; a purchase price of three billion euros was expected. The Munich-based technology group Siemens did not wish to comment on the report. Company circles expect the company to comment on the sale when it publishes its quarterly figures on Thursday.

Innomotics is the penultimate and largest of the peripheral businesses that Siemens wants to get rid of. The company, which was formed and spun off just over a year ago and whose core is the Large Drives division (LDA), has around 14,000 employees and a turnover of three billion euros. Of the original handful of companies to be sold, only the baggage handling systems business for airports remains. Here too, Siemens is already putting out feelers for a buyer.

(Report by Alexander Hübner, edited by Myria Mildenberger. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)