Midea Group Co (美的集團) is offering to raise its stake in Kuka AG to become the industrial robot maker’s largest shareholder in a deal that values the German company at 4.6 billion euros (US$5.2 billion), as China’s biggest maker of home appliances seeks to upgrade its factories and cut dependence on workers.
Midea is offering 115 euros per share, a 36 percent premium to Kuka’s closing share price of 84.41 euros on Tuesday.
Midea’s offer is contingent on it raising its stake to a total of 30 percent in the industrial robot maker, a company statement said yesterday.
Midea now indirectly holds a 13.5 percent stake in Kuka, according to the statement. A 30 percent stake would make Midea the biggest shareholder, ahead of Germany’s Voith, an industrial equipment manufacturer.
“We would like to have a meaningful stake in Kuka above 30 percent and have no intention of concluding a domination agreement or delisting the company,” Midea chairman Paul Fang (方洪波) said in a statement. “We believe that a larger shareholding strikes the right balance between an independent Kuka, while also putting both companies in a position to drive further growth through collaboration, especially in China.”
Kuka is already helping Midea automate its factories, after the Chinese company doubled its stake to about 10 percent earlier this year, chief executive officer Till Reuter said in March.
“Midea wants to build smart factories that use less labor to produce smart appliances, as China’s working population is dropping and it needs to adjust to higher labor costs,” Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) analyst Juliette Liu (劉珮昀) said in Taipei. “The company intends to use Kuka to establish a dominance over industrial robotic manufacturing techniques in China.”
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