De.mem buys German water treatment business

Australian-listed water and wastewater treatment business De.mem (ASX: MEM) has bought German wastewater company Geutec Umwelt-und Ambwassertechnik GmbH based in Essen.

The Singapore-Australian company announced it had bought a 75 per cent stake of Geutec , which operates in the European industrial market, complementing De.mem’s largely Australian and Asian mining and resources clientele.

The purchase of a business that sells water treatment coagulants, cleaners and anti-scalents is seen as a naturtal fit for De.mem, whose core IP is in membrane filtration.

De.mem’s CEO Andreas Kroell said: “Geutec’s chemicals-based…solutions are highly synergistic to our membrane products.

“The acquisition provides a logical expansion of De.mem’s product range…diversifys our revenues and provides growth options in the German and European industrial waste water treatment markets.”

Te purchase was settled at 5x Geutec’s earnings, with De.mem holding an option to move to full control. Geutec’s founder, Uwe Graessel will remain with he business to lead European expansion.

The expanded into Australia when it purchased Queensland’s Akwa-Worx, a leading provider of Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs), bioreactors and chemical dosing systems.

De.mem has been reporting increasing sales since listing in Australia, as reported in @AuManufacturing news.

In the past year it opened offices in Adelaide and Melbourne, broadened its marketing into the food sector and developed a new uIltrafiltration membrane in-house.

Picture: De.mem

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