GE Water & Process Technologies (www.gewater.com) completed its acquisition of ZENON Environmental Inc. (www.zenon.com), a publicly traded Canada-based provider of advanced membranes for water purification, wastewater treatment, and water reuse. The all-cash transaction is valued at approximately US $689 million. Under terms of the agreement, GE purchased all issued and outstanding common shares of ZENON and nonvoting Class A shares for Cdn $24.00 per share in cash.
“ZENON joins GE at a time when water quality, water scarcity, and infrastructure challenges around the globe are growing," said David Calhoun, GE’s vice chairman and president & CEO of GE Infrastructure, in a prepared statement. "With patented technologies that can treat virtually any water source, ZENON is setting the industry standard in providing the lowest lifecycle cost for our customers in one of the fastest growing sectors in water purification and wastewater treatment."
Over its 26-year history, ZENON developed ultrafiltration immersed membrane technology for water and wastewater treatment. ZENON membranes serve water and wastewater plants of all sizes, and their adoption is spreading rapidly throughout the world.
ZENON is particularly well known for its work on hollow-fiber membrane technology for wastewater treatment applications, including membrane bioreactor (MBR), tertiary water filtration, drinking water treatment, industrial process water and water reuse. ZENON has an extensive patent portfolio that is expected to enhance GE’s current water-scarcity platform by providing pretreatment technology for reverse-osmosis desalination and water reuse. ZENON’s technology in municipal water and wastewater treatment is expected to enhance GE’s presence with advanced technology products in this large global industry.