GE distributed power division sale includes Waukesha site

General Electric Co. is selling its distributed power unit, which includes a presence in Waukesha, to private equity firm Advent International for $3.25 billion as GE continues to shed businesses.

The deal includes distributed power’s Jenbacher and Waukesha engines and manufacturing sites in Austria, Canada and the U.S.

Germany-based Advent International is a private equity firm with operations and investments across the globe. The firm has investments across the industrial, energy, and oil and gas sectors worldwide.

GE’s distributed power business had 2017 sales of $1.32 billion and has about 3,000 workers.

GE acquired Dresser Inc., which included Dresser Waukesha, in 2010. Dresser Waukesha, formerly known as Waukesha Engine, is a supplier of natural gas-fired engines.

When that purchased occurred in 2010, the energy industry was focused on, among other things, discoveries of huge, cheaply accessible reservoirs of natural gas deep underground in shale formations in the U.S. and abroad.

At that time, the Waukesha site employed about 600 people.

In 2015, General Electric Co. stopped manufacturing engines in Waukesha and moved that work to Canada, eliminating about 350 jobs at the Waukesha plant.

Another 250 jobs in areas such as engineering and administration were not part of the cuts.

It’s unclear how many people still work at the facility in Waukesha or whether Advent would boost production at the Waukesha site.

Advent could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Waukesha site was established in 1906 as a repair shop for automobiles. The founders of the company, Harry Horning and Frederick Ahern, later formed an engine manufacturing firm that made engines for boats, automobiles, trucks, and farm and construction equipment.

GE’s medical imaging division, which also has a significant presence in Waukesha County, is not part of the sale agreement announced Monday.

The deal is expected to close by the fourth quarter.

GE Chairman and CEO John Flannery was tasked last year with reshaping the Boston company. GE has shrunk dramatically since it became entangled in the financial crisis a decade ago, and Flannery has vowed to shed $20 billion in assets quickly.

Former CEO Jeff Immelt left last June, and its CFO left several days later.