Power and thermal management solutions provider Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) on Saturday said it would acquire US-based Universal Instruments Corp for US$88.9 million.
Taking over the precision automation solutions company would boost Delta’s smart manufacturing and industrial automation capabilities, and generate substantial research-and-development and customer base synergies, the Taipei-based firm said.
“Universal Instruments has a remarkable track record and long-lasting customer relationships in the electronics manufacturing field, which is a key focus of Delta’s industrial automation business,” Delta chief executive officer Cheng Ping (鄭平) said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Headquartered in Conklin, New York, Universal designs and manufactures automation and assembly equipment solutions for electronics manufacturers. The company has customers in a wide range of sectors, including automotive, computing, medical, industrial and printed circuit board surface mount placement.
It holds more than 500 patents and has since its founding in 1919 delivered nearly 30,000 systems to customers, Delta said.
After the acquisition is completed, Universal would continue to operate under its original management team, Delta said, adding that the acquisition would be finalized when the conditions stated in the purchase agreement have been met.
“By adding Universal’s precision automation machine offerings and leading technologies to our highly diversified industrial automation portfolio, we can offer customers total solutions capable of enhancing the productivity” and reducing the carbon footprint of their production lines, Cheng said.
Delta’s automation segment contributed 14 percent to the company’s total revenue in the third quarter of this year, down 8 percent from the previous quarter, but up 16 percent from the third quarter of last year to NT$11.28 billion, the company reported on Oct. 29.
The power electronics and infrastructure segments are the biggest drivers of Delta’s business, contributing 60 percent and 26 percent respectively to its revenue, company data showed.
The deal with Universal comes after Delta in November last year completed the acquisition of Trihedra Engineering Ltd, a Canadian software company focusing on supervisory control and data acquisition, as well as industrial Internet of Things applications.
Delta invested C$45 million (US$34.9 million at the current exchange rate) in Trihedra to broaden its industrial automation and system integration portfolio, it said at the time.
Capital Investment Management Corp (群益投顧) said that Delta has over the past few years been looking for merger and acquisition opportunities worldwide, a strategy that would help it gain traction in the US and European markets.
Delta’s industrial automation business is likely to benefit from trends in the US and Europe in the long run, Capital said in a note.
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
‘REMARKABLE SHOWING’: The economy likely grew 5 percent in the first half of the year, although it would likely taper off significantly, TIER economist Gordon Sun said The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) yesterday raised Taiwan’s GDP growth forecast for this year to 3.02 percent, citing robust export-driven expansion in the first half that is likely to give way to a notable slowdown later in the year as the front-loading of global shipments fades. The revised projection marks an upward adjustment of 0.11 percentage points from April’s estimate, driven by a surge in exports and corporate inventory buildup ahead of possible US tariff hikes, TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy likely grew more than 5 percent in the first six months
SMART MANUFACTURING: The company aims to have its production close to the market end, but attracting investment is still a challenge, the firm’s president said Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said its long-term global production plan would stay unchanged amid geopolitical and tariff policy uncertainties, citing its diversified global deployment. With operations in Taiwan, Thailand, China, India, Europe and the US, Delta follows a “produce at the market end” strategy and bases its production on customer demand, with major site plans unchanged, Delta president Simon Chang (張訓海) said on the sidelines of a company event yesterday. Thailand would remain Delta’s second headquarters, as stated in its first-quarter earnings conference, with its plant there adopting a full smart manufacturing system, Chang said. Thailand is the firm’s second-largest overseas
SUPPLY RESILIENCE: The extra expense would be worth it, as the US firm is diversifying chip sourcing to avert disruptions similar to the one during the pandemic, the CEO said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) on Wednesday said that the chips her company gets from supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would cost more when they are produced in TSMC’s Arizona facilities. Compared with similar parts from factories in Taiwan, the US chips would be “more than 5 percent, but less than 20 percent” in terms of higher costs, she said at an artificial intelligence (AI) event in Washington. AMD expects its first chips from TSMC’s Arizona facilities by the end of the year, Su said. The extra expense is worth it, because the company is
RSS