Invensys sells off dust control business for pounds 33m

INVENSYS, the engineering company, is to sell its DCE dust control business to Donaldson, a US manufacturer of filtration and exhaust systems, for pounds 33m in cash.

DCE, which makes dust control equipment for industry, is the first disposal from the Invensys environmental businesses, and its sell-off cuts the division in half.

Invensys, which was formed from the merger of BTR and Siebe earlier this year, is racing to sell off more than pounds 1.8bn-worth of non-core businesses by March. Last month, it announced the sale of its US-based Automotive Fluid Handling business for pounds 151m.

The company is pressing the Stock Exchange to re-classify it from the engineering sector to electronics.

DCE has net operating assets of about pounds 30m and made profits of pounds 300,000 for the year ended 30 September, on turnover of pounds 48m.

The business employs more than 640 people in 14 sales offices and in factories in Leicester, Bielefeld in Germany and Louisville in the US.

Allen Yurko, chief executive of Invensys, said: "This divestment brings the total proceeds from our disposal programme to pounds 850m and reinforces our strategy of focusing on automation and controls, which is where we see the greatest opportunity for continued growth."