Chronicle of GEA
| Roots | |
| 1881 | Metallgesellschaft AG (MG) established as a metalstrading company. |
| 1882-1914 |
MG becomes a global player represented on all continents. Investments in mines and metallurgical plants. Metallurgische Gesellschaft (Lurgi) founded. |
| 1918 |
Large proportion of foreign investments lost in the First World War. Start of chemicals trading. |
| 1920 | Gesellschaft für Entstaubungsanlagen (GEA), a company producing dedusting equipment, founded. |
| 1939-1945 | Extensive destruction of MG and GEA production facilities. |
| 1945-1980 | Following reconstruction, numerous product innovation sensure increasing commercial success. |
| Reconstrucction and Globalization | |
| 1989 | GEA goes public. |
| 1991-1995 |
More intense acquisition activity in GEA (including Grasso, Niro,Westfalia Separator and Tuchenhagen). GEA sales increase to EUR 2 billion with 17,000 employees. |
| 1992 |
MG enters the field of special chemistry with the acqui-sition of Dynamit Nobel AG. The MG Group has 63,000 employees generating sales of around EUR13 billion. |
| 1993 | Heavy losses on oil transactions in the U.S. plunge MGinto a crisis. |
| 1994 |
Start of a fundamental realignment of the MG Groupturning it into an innovative technology group. Up to 1996 disposal of around 300 companies in the Group. Focus on engineering and chemicals. |
| 1999 | Metallgesellschaft acquires GEA AG. |
| 2000 | Metallgesellschaft AG becomes mg technologies ag. |
| 2003 | Strategic realignment of the Group focusing on specialty mechanical engineering, especially process engineering and equipment and on plant engineering. |
| 2004 | Disposal of the Chemicals division: sale of four of the five business units in Dynamit Nobel AG. |
| The new GEA | |
| 2005 |
Change in company name from mg technologies ag to GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft. Disposal of the DynamitNobel Plastics business unit. |
| 2007 | Sale of Plant Engineering Segment. |
| 2008 | New segmentation of divisions. |
