Desalination Company Update

20 Top Desal Companies to Watch

Fresh water is often talked about as being "the next gold", and for good reason. 97.5% of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water.70% of that fresh water is frozen in the icecaps ofAntarctica andGreenland and < 1% of the world's fresh water is accessible for direct human use. With agriculture being responsible for 87 % of the total water used globally, about one-third of the world's population lives in countries that are experiencing water stress. This begs the question, how can we turn salt water into fresh water? The process of turning salt water into fresh water is called "desalination" and over 16,000 desalination plants have now been built worldwide:

Veolia (NYSE:VE) is a $9.7 billion French company operating in 3 business areas:water, environmental services, energy services and transportation.Water management(not just desalination) represented 45% of the Company's $28 billion revenues in 2013. Veolia has over 1,700 desalination plants located in over 80 countries.

Doosan Group is a South Korean conglomerate which is a member of the Fortune Global 500, and is involved in electrical power, construction, machinery, defense , houses, highways and bridges, chemicals, engines… and desalination.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) is a $256 billion conglomerate involved in what seems to be a little bit of everything as well as desalination.

Fisia Italimpianti is an Italian desalination company predominantly working in the Middle East. The Company is owned bySalini Impregilo (BIT:SAL), a $1.9 billion Italian construction company involved in large-scale infrastructure, such as dams, hydroelectric plants, motorways, railways, bridges, etc.

Degremont is a French company specializing in the production of drinking water with10,000 facilities around the world. The Company is owned bySuez Environnement Company (EPA:SEV), an $8.8 billion French holding company. 49% of Suez revenues come from water treatment in France and Spain.

IDE is currently working on theCarlsbad Projectin San Diego, the largest desalination plant in the western hemisphere when finished. The Company also worked on theSorek Project, the world's largest and most advanced desalination plant which comprises 20% of the municipal water demand in Israel.IDE is jointly and equally owned by Israel Chemical Ltd. (TASE:ICL), a global minerals and specialty chemicals company; and the Delek Group, one of Israel's largest holding groups.

Acciona (BME:ANA)is a $4.3 billion Spanish conglomerate group dedicated to civil engineering, construction and infrastructure. Water and services make up just 9% of the Company's $6.6 billion in revenues.

Hyflux is a $728 million Singapore company which built the SingSpring desalination plant that now provides 10% of Singapore's drinking water. When theTuaspring Desalination Plant is completed, 25% of Singapore drinking water will be provided by Hyflux desalination plants. The Company's focus is on advanced membranes used for desalination with 1,300 membrane products and systems worldwide.

Befesa is a Spanish company predominantly involved in industrial waste management. In looking through their investor presentation, it seems that desalination is a small part of the Company's overall business focus.

Sadyt/Valoriza is a Spanish water treatment company specializing in desalination with plants incountries such as Spain, Israel, Australia, Algeria, Chile, and Tunis. The Company is owned bySacyr (BME:SCYR), a $2.7 billion Spanish construction and engineering company.

Biwater
Biwateris a private UK based company involved in the provision of clean water and the treatment of wastewater. The companyhas the largest installed capacity of membranes in the United States as well as the largest installed capacity of membrane bio-reactors (MBR's) in the UK. Membranes are a key part of areverse-osmosisdesalination system.

Tedagua
Based out of Spain,Tedaguadesigns, constructs, maintains desalination plants and plants for recycling water from sewerage feedwater. With water treatment contracts in all five continents, the Company considers itself to be a world leader in the water treatment sector. Tedagua is part of the Spanish construction giant, theACS Group. With over $56 billion in revenues in 2013, ACS is the #1 international contractor in the world by revenues, of which desalination is a small part.

Cadagua
With 40 years experience, Spanish companyCadaguais a leader in the field of water and sewage treatment and seawater desalination.Cadaguais a wholly owned subsidiary ofSpain's Ferrovial SA (BME:FER),a $14.5 billion multinational company engaged in the transportation infrastructure sector.

Wetico
With Saudi Arabia having more desalination plants than any other country in the world, it's not surprising to see a Saudi-based company in the list. Privately heldWeticois a 100 employee company which builds and runs water, desalination, sewage and wastewater treatment plants. Weticowas awarded the contract to build Shoaiba Barge, the largest offshore desalination plant in the world designed to ease the water shortage in the Western Province of Saudi Arabia.

Nomura Micro Science
Nomura Micro Scienceis a $32 million micro-cap company that trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO:6254) and is involved in water treatment and chemicals. The Company has a proprietary reverse osmosis systemcalled HEROwhich they claim hasovercome all disadvantages of a conventional reverse osmosis system.No breakdown of revenues is provided in the financials, so it is difficult to know what percentage is coming from desalination. The company history on the website listing accomplishments over the past 44 years mentions nothing about desalination.

Inima
GS Inimais a worldwide leader in the water treatment sector with more than200 water treatment installations. Inima is is part of theGS E&C group which has holding companies in the areas of engineering, construction andenvironmental services.Inima claims to have developed the first desalination plant in the world. Today, they have 30 desalination plants in Spain, Algeria, Chile, Mexico, and the U.S.

aqualia
According to Global Water Intelligence,aqualiais the currently the third-largest water management company in the world. Aqualia is owned by FCC (BME:FCC), a $2.5 billion publicly traded Spanish company with 63,000 employees which is involved in infrastructure, environmental services, and energy. Just 15% of FCC's total revenues are from water management, 80% of which are from Spain. Spain is the country with the 4th largest number of desalination plants in the world.

Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi Heavy Industriesis a $20.5 billion diversified manufacturer which is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO:7011). The Company is primarily involved in marine vessels, power engines, general machinery, aviation, and special vehicles. With over 80,000 employees and over 390 group companies,Mitsubishi's desalination businessmakes up a small part of the Company's overall business activities.

Aquatech
Founded in 1981, Pittsburgh-basedAquatechis a private company with more than 600 employees and offices around the globe.Aquatech claims to be one of the few companies in the world offering both membrane-based and thermal waterdesalination technologies. The Company has a broad offering of water treatment solutions targeting various industries.

Kurita Water Industries
Kuritais a $2.5 billion water treatment company that is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO:6370). The company's business is split about equally between water treatment chemicals and water treatment facilities. Inthis 4-page documentdescribing the company's products and services, not one mention is made of desalination leading us to believe that this occupies a small portion of the company's business.

Source: Nanalyze

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