ABB Group , a Swiss-Swedish multinational conglomerate headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, is mainly engaged in robotics, energy, heavy electrical equipment and automation technology. The group is ranked 341st in the 2018 Fortune Global 500 list. The company has not left the magazine’s list for 24 years.

The group is traded on the SIX Stock Exchange in Zurich, the Stockholm Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange within the United States.

the date

ABB’s history dates back to the late 19th century when it was founded as  the Swedish Electrical Company Limited  in 1883 by  Ludwig Fredholm  in Västerås as a manufacturer of electric lamps and generators. While “Brown, Boveri & Say”  ( BBC ) was founded  in 1891 in Baden, Switzerland by  Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown  and Walter Boveri  as a Swiss group to produce AC and DC motors, generators, steam turbines and transformers.

ABB was born after the merger of the Swedish company ASEA with the Swiss company Braun, Boveri &  SAE in 1988, which acquired Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon in 1967  . The former CEO of Swedish  Asia , Percy Barnvik, ran the group until 1996.

In 1990, ABB purchased Westinghouse’s measurement and control division. The control division was spun off in the late 1990s into Canon Technology while the measurement division was spun off in the early 2000s into Alistair Electric.

Also in the early 1990s, ABB purchased Compassing Engineering Corporation ( CE ), an American company concerned with the development of conventional fossil fuel energy and nuclear power supply systems, headquartered in Stamford, Norwalk, Connecticut. Klaus Agthe was  the CEO of US operations at the time. Expansion plans continued under his management, as in 1997 the group also purchased Elsage Bialy, a process automation group consisting of Bialy Control, Hartmann, Brunn, Fisher and Porter. This is the largest acquisition in the history of the ABB Group.

ABB bought  International Combustion  from Rolls-Royce in 1997.

In 2000, Alstom became responsible for ABB’s boiler industries and fossil fuel development operations. While Westinghouse Electric Company took over the group’s nuclear program.

In 2000, ABB signed a contract with the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (a consortium formed in 1995 by the governments of the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union) to deliver equipment and services to two Korean nuclear power companies.

The group formally exited the Alstom ABB venture in 2000, selling its interest in conventional power generation systems to Alstom before selling its nuclear businesses to British Nuclear Fuel and merging with Westinghouse Electricity. In 2001, ABB was ranked number one in the Dow Jones Corporate Sustainability Index for the third year in a row.

In  2002 , the group asked Lindhall, the company’s former CEO, to return a  $ 50  million pension bonus that the board of directors described as excessive. Other than its request from its former president, Percy Parnevik, to also return part of his retirement amount, amounting to  $ 87  million. At the same time that the company revealed losses in its treasury amounting to  $ 691  million in  2001 , this resulted in public criticism in Switzerland and Sweden.

The group’s sales systems division was sold in 2004 to Capface  , a Swiss private equity firm, as part of ABB’s strategy to focus on energy and automation technologies.

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This occurred after the company’s Australian and Hong Kong headquarters were sold the previous year (in May 2003) to Donner EDI Limited.

Financial debts and asbestos issues brought the group to the brink of bankruptcy in early 2000. In 2006, the group recovered its economic condition again after the asbestos issues were settled. In August 2007, Lomas Global was sold to CB&I.

In December  2008 , the group acquired Bear-Mc Electric to expand its presence in the oil and gas industry in Western Canada.

In  2009 , the group reorganized its automation divisions. Effective January 1,  2010 , the Business Units of the Automation and Robotics Division were regrouped into two new divisions: the Automation and Motion Division and the Low Voltage Products Division.

In May  2010 , the group acquired software company Vintex for $1 billion. While on May 9,  2011 , it acquired the Australian company Mincom Limited for an undisclosed sum. Both Fintex and Mincom were merged under the name Fintex on July 29,  2011 before being listed as one of the company’s commercial products.

In  2011 , the group acquired US company Baldor Electric for  $ 4.2  billion in an all-cash deal. On 30 January  2012 , the group acquired Thomas & Betts in a cash deal worth $3.9 billion.

On September 25  , 2017 , the group’s attempt to purchase GE was announced, which was crowned with success on June 30,  2018 .

Organizational Chart

ABB Group is the world’s largest electrical grid builder and has significant contributions to energy and automation technologies. With a long history of growth through mergers and acquisitions, the group has entered a phase of consolidation of structure since 2014.

The company has one corporate department and four production departments that were reorganized in January 2017. The organization relies on a matrix structure in its management.

Electrical products

The Electrical Products Division manufactures:

• Low and medium voltage products. Including infrastructure for electric vehicles, solar inverters, substations, and distribution automation.
• Products to protect people, installations and electronic equipment from electrical overload such as tires, cable trays, low-voltage circuit breakers.
• Instrumentation and sensors, control products, switchgear and wiring accessories.

The group is also interested in KNX systems   that integrate and automate electrical equipment in the building, such as lighting, ventilation systems, data communication networks and security.

The acquisition of GE Group, which was closed in June 2018, strengthened the company’s global position and moved it to become the second largest company in the world in the electrical products industry.

 Gahzly guide to ABB company prices 2023

Robots and movement

The Robotics and Motion Department provides products and services necessary for industrial production such as electric motors, generators, speed, frequency, voltage and pressure controllers, electronic devices and industrial robots. The group has manufactured more than  300,000  robots. In  2006 , the group opened a manufacturing center in Shanghai, China.

Recently, with the beginning of the energy era, the group began manufacturing wind turbines, solar energy inverters and its own uninterruptible power supply units.

Industrial automation

The Industrial Automation division provides control systems and automation applications for industry. It provides the tools and technology necessary for the oil and gas, energy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pulp, paper, metals, marine metals and turbo industries. The department consists of seven business units:

1. Control Technologies (the world’s number one DCS supplier)
2. Marine and ports
3. Measurement and analytics
4. Oil, gas and chemicals
5. Power and water generation.
6. Process industries.
7. Turbochargers.

Electrical networks

The Electrical Networks Department provides the technology and components necessary for electricity transmission and distribution operations. The production line includes transformers, switchgear, circuit breakers, and associated high-voltage equipment such as digital protective relays.

The department also provides maintenance services. It also provides integrated systems and services for energy transmission, distribution networks and power stations including substations and automation systems for flexible outlets, flexible alternating current transmission systems ( FACTS ), high voltage direct current ( HVDC ) systems and network management systems. The department is divided into four subunits:

1. High voltage products
2. Transformers
3. Network automation
4. Network integration

   Gahzly guide to ABB company prices 2023