IBM Espana SA, Spanish electrical components distributor Abengoa SA, French construction company Groupe Bouyges SA and IBM France have signed a joint venture agreement for equal shares in Intelligent Building Solutions SA, which offers integrated services for intelligent buildings in their different phases as well as for data processing centres and networks. Each partner is putting about $355,000 in share capital into Intelligent Buildings Solutions and the company will have a staff of 10 to begin with. It is estimated that by the year 2000, 90% of non-residential buildings will be intelligent – a sharp increase given that last year the figure was 20%. Although Intelligent Buildings will try to fit in with IBM’s product offering it will not be tied exclusively to the IBM environment and says it will supply any equipment a customer requests. The managing director of IBM’s Spanish factory, Joaquin Casals will be chairman of the new company while Abengoa’s vice-president for Catalonia and Aragon will take up the position of managing director. IBM France has had a joint venture on intelligent buildings with Bouyges, a big French construction company, for about four years now.
