Schneider Electric has bought Invensys` Advanced Building Systems (ABS) operations in Europe and the Middle East for £84m. It plans to merge the business with the integrated operations of TAC (which it bought in 2003) and Andover Controls (which it acquired a year ago). The combined business will have sales of around $800m this year.

Almost half of ABS` business comes from the UK where it operates under the Satchwell brand. In the year to March 2005, the businesses being sold generated a profit of £5m on sales of £94m. ABS` operations in the rest of the world, which are not included in the deal, recorded sales of £130m.

Schneider says that the $11bn building automation and control market is growing at about 6% a year. The deal will broaden the company`s customer base and provide synergies with its other technologies.