Thyssenkrupp Plans to Become Holding Company of Independent Businesses

Wall Street Journal

27-05-2025

Thyssenkrupp TKA 8.76%increase; green up pointing triangle plans to make all of its divisions independent and open to outside investment, a major overhaul that aims to turn the German industrial group into a holding company after more than two centuries as a manufacturer.
The company said Monday that it would start preparations to separate its materials-services and automotive-technology segments in the coming years and that its decarbonization-technologies unit would follow suit. It aims to retain a majority interest in its businesses in the medium term.
The plan marks the latest attempt by Thyssenkrupp, which traces its roots back to industrial-revolution Germany, to reinvent itself. The company has long sought to reduce its complexity, become more competitive and spur profitability, but it has stumbled in its efforts.
Thyssenkrupp in 2017 planned to combine its steel business with the European unit of India's Tata Steel, but the deal was blocked by European Union antitrust regulators in 2019. The company launched a plan to split its operations into two companies in 2018, but abandoned the proposal a year later. It opted instead to list its elevator unit, but ended up selling it to a private-equity consortium in 2020.
The company has been confronting weak markets and macroeconomic uncertainty. It issued several profit warnings in recent years. In the year to September, Thyssenkrupp cut its outlook three times.
Its new plan looks to replicate the playbook it followed for the spinoff of its hydrogen business, Thyssenkrupp Nucera, in which Thyssenkrupp kept a majority stake after the business was listed in 2023.
'We want to build on this. We are convinced that the segments can and will best leverage the global growth opportunities in their industries as independent entities,' Thyssenkrupp Chief Executive Miguel Lopez said.
The core idea of the restructuring is to separate Thyssenkrupp's businesses and open them up for third-party investment, it said.
Frankfurt-listed shares in Thyssenkrupp closed the day up 8.8%. The stock hit an all-time low in September, but has more than doubled in value since the start of the year, helped by the company's plans to list its warship business.
The company is already working on the spinoff of Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, with the aim of listing of the business in Frankfurt by the end of 2025, it said. And it is in the process of negotiating a 50-50 joint venture with Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky's EP Corporate Group for its steel business.
Thyssenkrupp sold a 20% stake in its steel operations to EPCG last year.
In coming years, Thyssenkrupp will prepare its materials-services and automotive-technology units for the capital markets and to be standalone businesses as soon as conditions are met, and its decarbonization-technologies segment will also become independent, it said.
The company said it aims to retain controlling interests in the businesses with the exception of the planned steel joint venture.
Thyssenkrupp plans to present this strategic realignment to its supervisory board before the end of September.
Write to Pierre Bertrand at [e-mail]