European tech giant ABB has agreed to divest ABB's robotics division to Japan's SoftBank Group for an enterprise value of $5.375 billion.
As a result ABB, which is dual listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Sweden and the SIX Swiss Exchange, has decided not to pursue its earlier intention to spin-off the business as a separately listed company.
Zurich-headquartered ABB, which is a tech leader in electrification and automation, said in a media release that there are "limited business and technology synergies" between the ABB's robotics business and the remainder of ABB’s businesses, and that is has different demand and market characteristics.
The ABB Robotics division has a workforce of approximately 7,000. With 2024 revenues of $2.3 billion it represented about 7% of ABB Group revenues and had an operational EBITA margin of 12.1%. Altogether ABB employs around 110,000 people.
Masayoshi Son, chairman & chief executive officer (CEO) of SoftBank Group, said in an announcement: “SoftBank’s next frontier is physical artificial intelligence (AI). Together with ABB Robotics, we will unite world-class technology and talent under our shared vision to fuse artificial super intelligence and robotics — driving a groundbreaking evolution that will propel humanity forward.”
SoftBank has been making large investements into AI and technology over the last 12 months, including $2 billion recently into Intel and enetinr into a mulit-billion dollar Japanese joint venture with OpenAI. SoftBank is also healvily involved in the US's Stargate AI project.
Also in the announcement, Peter Voser, chairman of ABB, said: “SoftBank’s offer has been carefully evaluated by the board and executive Committee and compared with our original intention for a spin-off. It reflects the long-term strengths of the division, and the divestment will create immediate value to ABB shareholders."
Voser added: "ABB will use the proceeds from the transaction in line with its well-established capital allocation principles. Our ambitions for ABB are unchanged and we will continue to focus on our long-term strategy, building on our leading positions in electrification and automation.”
ABB’s CEO Morten Wierod said: “ABB and SoftBank share the same perspective that the world is entering a new era of AI-based robotics and believe that the division and SoftBank’s robotics offering can best shape this era together."
Wierod added: "ABB Robotics will benefit from the combination of its leading technology and deep industry expertise with SoftBank’s state-of-the-art capabilities in AI, robotics and next-generation computing. This will allow the business to strengthen and expand its position as a technology leader in its field.”
As a result of the signing of the agreement ABB will adjust its reporting structure and move to three business areas. As of the fourth quarter 2025, the Robotics division will be reported as discontinued operations. At the same time, the machine automation division, which together with ABB's robotics arm currently forms the robotics & discrete automation business area, will become a part of the process automation business area.
Upon closing, the divestment will result in a non-operational pre-tax book gain of approximately $2.4 billion with expected cash proceeds, net of transaction costs, of approximately $5.3 billion. The expected separation costs related to the divestment are approximately $200 million, about half of which was already included in iits 2025 guidance.
ABB said that its best estimate of the transaction-related cash tax outflows in respect of the local business carve-out is in the range of $400 - $500 million.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and further customary closing conditions and is expected to close in mid-to-late 2026.
