Swiss engineering and manufacturing firm Sulzer has said it wants to focus its activities in the three “attractive key markets” of oil & gas, power and water.

Sulzer announced its intention in its latest half-year financial results, which reported a drop in sales and profitability.

In order to focus on these markets, Sulzer said it is exploring the potential divestiture of the Sulzer Metco division, which is mainly active in parts of the automotive, aviation, and general industries.

The potential divestiture of the Sulzer Metco division would generate additional funds for targeted acquisitions and further investments toward organic growth in Sulzer’s key markets, it said.

The company already holds leading positions in the markets, it said, which accounted for about two thirds of the company’s sales in 2012. They offer attractive growth potential based on global megatrends such as population growth, urbanisation, increasing energy demand, and scarcity of water. Sulzer said it offers both performance-critical equipment and related services in these key markets.

After the potential divestiture of Sulzer Metco, the three markets would account for almost 80% of sales—with oil and gas at 48%, power at 16%, and water at 15%.

Sulzer Pumps, the division active in the water market, saw an increased order intake but sales were down 3%. Operating income was impacted by lower volume and cost absorption in the wastewater business, especially in Southern Europe, Sulzer said. To further leverage synergies, the wastewater pumps business was combined with the process pumps business into a new business area called Configured Solutions.

For the first half of 2013, the firm reported a 23% drop in EBIT compared to the first half of 2012 on sales of CHF 1.9 billion. Order intake increased 3.8% to CHF 2.1 billion.