US group Emerson Electric Co (www.emerson.com/en-us) has announced asset sales worth $5.2 billion as it looks for acquisitions to focus on industrial automation and consumer products.

It is to sell its network-power division to Platinum Equity and other investors for $4 billion, while keeping an undisclosed minority stake, the company said on 2 August.

The day before, it said Japan’s Nidec Corp has agreed to pay $1.2 billion for two of its businesses that produce motors, drives and alternators.

Emerson’s plans to offload the under-performing businesses were announced in June last year, following disappointing earnings growth. The re-structuring includes a cost-cutting programme intended to save more than $400 million a year.

CEO David Farr says the next step is to expand the re-focused company through acquisitions. After the sale of the network-power and industrial-motors operations, Emerson will seek to increase its sales to $20 billion a year (from about $16 billion).