ABB offloads Power Conversion division to Taiwanese PSU manufacturer

ABB has announced the sale of its US-based Power Conversion division to Taiwanese PSU manufacturer AcBel Polytech Inc. 

It wasn’t that long ago that ABB acquired the Power Conversion division, originally known as Lineage Power, from GE Energy. That deal in 2018 saw ABB pick up General Electric’s industrial solutions business for $2.6 billion, although the company didn’t seem to be too interested in all parts of that acquisition – attempting to offload Power Conversion back in 2019, which it later abandoned. 

Since then, ABB has toiled with the idea several times, as the company looks to trim down its operations and sell off some of its peripheral businesses. It has had some success with that goal so far, with the company selling off its power transmission unit Dodge and spinning off its turbocharging business Accelleron to shareholders.

For AcBel Polytech, the company said that the acquisition will help complete its products portfolio, covering areas including 5G, data centres, high-performance computing and electric vehicle charging while accelerating an upgrade of the power supply industry and development of the North American market. 

ABB will also benefit too, with the company set to receive a small non-operational book gain from the sale of its Power Conversion business, which had a price tag of $550 million. Although that is subject to approval by both US and Taiwanese authorities, with both parties expecting the deal to close in the second half of 2023. 

Jerry Hsu, Chairman of AcBel, commented, “We sincerely welcome ABB Power Conversion to join the AcBel family. We believe this transaction is beneficial to both parties as we are highly complementary to each other in product portfolio, customer base and expertise. By combining AcBel’s core capabilities in smart manufacturing and original design manufacturing with ABB Power Conversion’s cutting-edge technologies in premium and high-quality products along with its advanced system solutions, we will be able to establish a more comprehensive product portfolio and expand our solution offerings to continue to create value for our customers and investors.”

Björn Rosengren, ABB CEO, added, “We are very happy to have found an excellent new home for this specialised business that can go from strength to strength under the leadership of AcBel in the future.”