Advantech Co (研華), the world’s biggest industrial computer maker, yesterday said it has acquired a 15 percent stake in touchpanel supplier Mildex Optical Inc (熒茂) for NT$200 million (US$6.47 million) to deepen its presence in the Internet of Things (IoT) supply chain.
Advantech said in a statement that it has obtained 15.71 million Mildex Optical shares via its fully owned investment arm.
That means Advantech acquired them at NT$12.73 per share, paying almost no premium compared with Mildex’s closing price of NT$12.7 yesterday.
“Touch panels are a key component for the industrial computer and IoT industries,” Advantech chairman K. C. Liu (劉克振) said in the statement. “Advantech hopes to create a sharing platform for [companies in the] IoT supply chain.”
Mildex, a supplier to Advantech, specializes in developing touchpanels used in industrial computers and has strong manufacturing capabilities for a variety of touch products, the statement said.
The collaboration would help boost sales of Mildex’s products worldwide by leveraging Adventech’s global marketing networks, the statement said.
The partnership would also facilitate expansion into the touch display module business, it said.
Advantech in March said that high-margin industrial IoT devices would be one of its strongest growth drivers this year, as manufacturers in Europe, the US and China are stepping up factory automation efforts.
The company at the time said that US President Donald Trump’s “Made in America” policy and tax cuts would provide more business for Advantech.
Last month, IoT business showed the strongest growth momentum, with Europe, Japan and South Korea outperforming other regions, Advantech said on Monday.
The company’s revenue last month fell 2.53 percent year-on-year and 13.32 percent month-on-month to NT$3.84 billion, with NT$36.36 billion in aggregate revenue in the first nine months, up 11.48 percent from a year earlier.
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