Landis+Gyr, a leading smart meter company, announced that it has raised US$100 million from company shareholders to fund the rapid growth needed to meet US$1 billion in orders acquired over the last year.
“Despite the global financial crisis, Landis+Gyr continues to grow and our shareholders continue to invest in that growth. The substantial growth we are currently experiencing in our U.S. business is compensating for the challenging trading environment in Europe, and allowing the company to have orders, sales and profits that are exceeding expectations," Landis+Gyr CEO, Cameron O’Reilly, said.
“In Europe, the EU recently announced its path-breaking Energy Package including a Directive requiring at least 80% of homes to have a smart meter by 2020 and 100% by 2022. Last week, the Obama Administration approved US$3.4 billion in smart grid funding, most of which is going to accelerate the roll-out of smart metering systems across the country. Similar government and regulatory moves in Canada, Australia, and China are increasingly making this a global opportunity.”
Landis+Gyr, which is based in Switzerland, has major contracts in Australia, across the Nordics countries, and in the United States. The company said it spends approximately US$90 million per year on research and development to ensure that it has the broadest technology portfolio in the industry and has recently released its latest generation in-home display, targeting the rapidly growing market for in-home energy monitoring and management. In addition to its smart metering wins, the company has also had substantial success in South America and India with its new anti-theft technologies which enable utilities to provide electricity to areas that otherwise might go without.
One of Landis+Gyr’s largest customers, Oncor, the owner and operator of the largest distribution and transmission system in Texas, recently announced an important milestone had been achieved in Landis+Gyr’s US$300 million contract to provide an end-to-end smart metering solution. More than 400,000 smart meters have now been deployed across the Dallas metro area and Oncor anticipates nearly 700,000 advanced meters will be in place by year-end, making the deployment one of the largest and most quickly installed in the US.
In further steps towards Smart Grid development, the company has this year also announced leadership partnerships with SAP (NYSE: SAP), Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) to accelerate the delivery of standards-based solutions for the energy industry and facilitate the integration of existing capabilities with renewable power sources, home automation, plug-in hybrid electrical vehicles (PHEV) and distribution automation functionality.
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