GE to buy France-based industrial water supplier

Water is a key processing medium in food manufacturing plants, used for cooling, washing, heating, cooking, sanitising, transport and clean up.

The UK newspaper said GE Energy Financial Services, will announce today that it is buying 95 per cent of Idex,which extracts and purifies water for industrial use. The newspaper did not site any sources.

The purchase is part of a plan by GE Energy Financial Services (EFS) to increase investments inthe water market, where it sees growing opportunities in the growing demand and supplyshortages.

GE said it aims to build a $1bn portfolio of water investments over the next three years. Itsfirst investment last year was $18m in a four-year-old wastewater reuse plant near Atlanta.

The company estimates that the worldwide water private project finance market amounts to $50bn, as water scarcity and quality concernsincrease.

Curtin University in Australia estimates that water used for dairy cleaning systems represents about 16 per cent of the cost.

The university estimates that green been processing uses up to 65,000 litres of water per tonne of product. Meat packing and milk product production uses up to 18,000 litres per tonne.