Telvent acquires DTN for $445 million

September 8, 2008

BY Susanne Retka Schill

Web exclusive posted Sept. 22, 2008 at 3:17 p.m. CST

Omaha-based DTN Holding Inc., which provides U.S. fuel market supplier-to-customer information, has been acquired by the global firm Telvent GIT SA, based in Madrid, Spain, for $445 million.

More than 60 percent of Telvent is owned by Abengoa S.A., a renewable fuels and multinational technology company.

For Telvent, a global information systems provider, the acquisition will increase the company's presence in North America and add agricultural market and weather information to its portfolio of services. In turn, the acquisition is providing DTN, which currently serves the North American market only, a platform to expand globally, said Manuel Sanchez, Telvent's chairman and chief executive officer, during a conference call to announce the acquisition. Sanchez also serves on the board of directors of Telvent's sister company, Abengoa Bioenergia.

DTN has over 700,000 subscribers to its information services, said Robert Gordon, chief executive officer of DTN. "We are thrilled about the future with Telvent, which will allow us to develop a long-term plan headed to better serve our customers with the information and systems that they need to make day-to-day critical decisions," he said. "We see many opportunities to integrate our services and achieve extensive new growth on a global scale, while allowing our professionals to develop their careers in a solid global company."

With the acquisition, DTN will provide about 30 percent of Telvent's annual revenues. "DTN will continue to run the same day-to-day operations and its employees will carry out the same responsibilities while working with Telvent to explore new business opportunities," said Bill Brozak, a spokesman for DTN Refined Fuels.

DTN satellite dishes and monitors appear in most county elevator and in many farm offices providing real-time information about commodity markets. DTN analysts provide commentary on the U.S. market as well global market developments in the primary crops. Its weather information services are targeted to several business sectors, including weather forecasts to help electrical generation facilities manage their load. One possible synergy from the combined companies, Sanchez suggested, will be to combine that weather forecasting information from DTN with Telvent's automated control systems to better serve their industrial customers with real time information.

In the energy sector, DTN tracks the buying and selling of various refined fuels, providing pricing information to the industry, as well as handling credit authorizations.

Abengoa, through its U.S. subsidiary, produces about 200 MMgy at four U.S. ethanol facilities located in Kansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska.

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