UK – Dairy processing equipment manufacturer APV is not one of the companies being sold off by owner Invensys as it attempts to clear a 4.9 billion euro debt.

However, Invensys has brought together APV Systems and APV Baker to make one company – APV. The dairy sector makes up 61% of APV’s annual turnover.

Invensys announced the results of its strategy review on Tuesday. In the announcement, the company said that it is to sell off a third of its business (valued at 3.8 billion euro) before March 2003.

In the shake up, Invensys has changed its structure from four divisions to two core divisions – production management and energy management. APV will be part of the production management division.

Two smaller divisions have been created. The development division consists of companies that may be sold off in the future. The industrial components and systems division, which is made up of deartments Invensys aims to sell by March 2003.

This week’s news comes after Invensys issued two profit warnings last year and chief executive Allen Yurko resigned in October. Invensys was formed from the merger of UK engineering companies Siebe and BTR in 1998.

Despite these efforts to cut debt, the company said Tuesday that it will also issue bonds either this year or next. This is designed to diversify the company’s sources of finance.