For the trade press
Erlangen - Thursday, June 15, 2006
Siemens Will Work with Israel's Largest National Water Company on Joint Development of New Technology
Siemens and Mekorot, Israel's national water company, signed an agreement to jointly develop water treatment technologies that will help solve some of the world's most difficult water challenges, including the supply of high-quality water in arid regions.
The agreement joins the two companies in a strategic partnership to develop and market globally technologies specifically for wastewater treatment and reuse, desalination, and water treatment security techniques and solutions. Siemens will have the opportunity to use Mekorot as a beta site for new technology, partial funding of R&D, and exposure to new technology development under Israel's water technology incubator program.
"Water is an extremely precious commodity in Israel. The landscape there provides the perfect environment for researching and developing water technologies in 'real-world' conditions and then marketing and selling them globally," said Dr. Roger Radke, CEO of the Water Technologies Division of Siemens Group I&S.
"Nearly 2 billion people in the world today do not have access to clean drinking water and in the next 20 years, one-third of the population may be facing a serious water crisis," added Radke. "People are now only beginning to respond to the issues of clean water though investment and research, which will be critical to solving the world's water dilemma."
Siemens estimates demand for new water treatment, reuse and recycle technologies, estimated at $40 billion, will double in the next 8 to ten years.
According to both companies, Mekorot will benefit from early exposure to new technologies under development, assistance with technical issues specific to Mekorot, potential market channels for Mekorot-developed technologies, and support in analyzing applicability of incubator-developed products to the global water market.
"We welcome the participation of a global water treatment leader like Siemens as we continue to develop solutions to problems caused by water scarcity and increased consumption," said Mekorot chairman Booky (Baruch) Oren. "Mekorot is leading Israel to leverage its proven experience in advanced water solutions (for example: sewage reclamation, desalination, rain enhancement, etc) to global activities. In order to accelerate the process we were looking for a global water leader and Siemens is the ideal partner in the ideal time. "
The agreement, effective immediately, was signed today by Radke, Oren, Mekorot CEO Ronen Wolfman, and Siemens Israel managing director Oren Ahronson. No financial terms were disclosed.
Mekorot is the national water company of Israel with annual sales of $500 million and equity of more than $670 million. The annual balance sheet is about $2 billion. Mekorot supplies 1.3 billion cubic meters of water per year-90% of the drinking water in Israel and 70% of all the water supply in the country. The company's experience, know-how and advanced solutions enable Israel to successfully confront the water shortage, resulting from years of drought and its location on the desert fringe, and the rapid rise in water consumption. Visit the website at http://www.mekorot.co.il
Siemens Water Technologies including the USFilter Group of Companies delivers cost-effective, reliable water and wastewater treatment systems and services to municipal, industrial, commercial and institutional customers worldwide. The division "Water Technologies" is part of Siemens' Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S) which is a system and solution provider for industrial and infrastructure facilities and global service provider for the plant and projects business covering planning, installation, operation and the entire life cycle. In fiscal 2005 (to September 30) I&S employed a total of 31,700 people worldwide and achieved total sales of EUR 5.390 billion.
Visit company websites at http://www.usfilter.com , and http://www.siemens.com/water