(Photo: © Dirk Müller/LIFTjournal/KI-assistiert)
October 2026
According to insiders, TK Elevator’s (TKE) European business is set to be sold off for the most part as part of the takeover of TKE by Kone, reported the Reuters news agency on 1 October. LIFTjournal has investigated the matter further and also asked corporate transactions expert Dr Lars Watermann for his assessment.
By Ulrike Lotze
First, the Reuters report: "Kone intends to launch a sale process for the TKE division – which accounts for more than a quarter of the former Thyssenkrupp subsidiary’s turnover – before the end of autumn," according to a quote from Thursday’s report. In a statement to Reuters, Kone explained that it had "always made it clear that the divestment of business units in some regions of the world might be necessary to secure regulatory approval".
On 2 October, a headline from the Swiss trade journal "Finanz und Wirtschaft" (FuZ) made the rounds. According to the report, the Schindler Group sees this development as an "opportunity for acquisitions".
LIFTjournal enquired and received the following statement from the Schindler Group: "Should divestments become necessary as a result of the TKE/Kone transaction, we would carefully assess the resulting opportunities on the basis of their strategic suitability, their value-creation potential and the applicable regulatory requirements."
How should these reports be interpreted? Dr Lars Watermann had already put forward the argument in the July issue of LIFTjournal that the competition authorities would not "simply wave a full merger through". Even at that time, he predicted that Europe’s core markets would be excluded from the deal.
What he could not have foreseen at the time: "TKE had already taken corporate law precautions for precisely this scenario", according to research by the expert on mergers and acquisitions in the lift industry. This is because, on 16 July 2026, TKE purchased a so-called ‘shelf company’ (GmbH), which was renamed ‘TK Europe Holding GmbH’ in mid-August.
An interesting development – also for small and medium-sized enterprises, according to Watermann’s assessment. The expert emphasises that one can not only assume that acquisitions in Central Europe will be carried out via this new entity in future, but also that TK Europe Holding GmbH will have a new owner in a few months’ time: "As both Schindler and Otis could also fail to clear the antitrust hurdle due to their market position in Europe, insiders assume that the new company will be sold to a private equity firm."
Analysts at the US investment bank Citi had also told Reuters that the sale of the European business could raise 2.1 billion euros. The M&A expert is sceptical about this figure: "However, I expect it to be considerably higher."
Watermann has compiled the following figures for LIFTjournal to support his argument:
• Kone is paying 29.4 billion euros for TKE
• Total TKE turnover: 9.2 billion euros
• Total TKE turnover in Europe/Africa: 2.48 billion euros, i.e. 27 per cent
• Total TKE maintenance turnover: 4.42 billion euros
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• Number of units under maintenance: > 1.4 million
• Applying the above 27 per cent share to 1.4 million units under maintenance: approx. 380,000 units
• Total purchase price divided by the number of units under maintenance = approx. 20,000 euros per unit under maintenance
• # approx. 380,000 units in Europe × 20,000 euros = 7.6 billion euros
The expert’s conclusion: "I estimate the value of the former TK Europe Africa GmbH’s share of the entire group at more than seven billion euros."
Background: In April 2026, the Finnish lift manufacturer Kone announced the takeover of its German competitor TK Elevator (TKE). Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals. TKE’s main owners, the private equity firms Advent and Cinven, had acquired TKE in 2020 for around 17 billion.
Mehr Informationen:
A wedding with strings attached
A mega-deal and its potential consequenses
Kone shareholders agree
Digitalpaper
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