Big move!

Recently, Midea Group announced that it plans to fully acquire and privatize the equity of KUKA (hereinafter referred to as "KUKA"), a company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany, through a wholly-owned subsidiary
.

At present, Midea Group indirectly holds a 94.
55% stake in KUKA through its overseas subsidiary MECCA.
If the acquisition is completed, it will wholly hold KUKA, which will also be delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
.

As an important carrier of Midea's robotics and automation business, KUKA's wholly-owned acquisition this time will help focus on business operations and at the same time enhance Midea Group's internal resource coordination and sharing in related business fields
.
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KUKA to be privatized

Back in 2017, KUKA officially entered the Midea Group, which was regarded by the outside world as a key step for Midea to promote the "dual-wisdom" strategy and in-depth layout of the robot industry
.

At that time, Midea acquired 32.
2335 million shares of Kuka through a general offer through MECCA, an overseas wholly-owned subsidiary, accounting for about 81.
04% of Kuka's total share capital.

.

Prior to this, MECCA already held 13.
51% of KUKA, and after the completion of the aforementioned acquisition, the shareholding ratio rose to 94.
55%
.

According to the announcement, Midea Group will continue to acquire the remaining 5.
45% of the shares to realize the wholly-owned holding of KUKA, which will also be delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
.

According to public information, KUKA is one of the world's leading suppliers of robotics and automated production equipment and solutions, with customers covering medical, electronics, food, consumer goods, aviation, solar energy and many other sub-industries
.
Midea Group has high hopes for the joining of KUKA
.
The company said that with the help of KUKA's technological advantages, it can promote manufacturing upgrades and expand the B2B industry space.
The two parties will jointly explore multi-field markets including service robots
.

It is worth mentioning that in the few years after the acquisition, KUKA’s performance has not risen but fallen
.
Wind data shows that KUKA entered a downward channel after hitting a new high of 690 million yuan in profit in 2017.
In 2018, its net profit was less than 100 million yuan, a drop of over 80%
;

Entering 2021, thanks to the recovery of the global economy, the increased investment in industrial automation of downstream customers, and the transformation of its own efficiency improvement, KUKA's business scale has grown
.
It is reported that the number of new business opportunities obtained by KUKA China in the first half of the year increased by nearly 50% year-on-year, and the proportion of new customer orders increased to 15%
.
In terms of performance, KUKA achieved revenue of 11.
76 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31%; net profit was 117 million yuan, a year-on-year loss
.

Controlling shareholders increased their holdings by over 1 billion yuan

It should be noted that air conditioners and consumer appliances still account for the majority of Midea's many business segments
.
Although the robot and automation business is a profit growth point, it does not account for a large proportion of the overall revenue.
In the first half of this year, this segment achieved revenue of 12.
7 billion yuan, accounting for 7.
3% of the total revenue.
The gross profit margin was 33.
28%, higher than The company's overall gross profit margin was 11.
57 percentage points
.

Regarding the proposed wholly-owned holding of KUKA, Midea Group stated that it will realize the coordination and sharing of internal resources
.
Sitting on the diversified medical and logistics industries such as Wandong Medical and Ander Logistics, Midea has clearly proposed related solutions for medical, entertainment and new consumer fields in the field of robotics and automation, and KUKA, which has key robotics technology, is among them.
The effect cannot be underestimated
.

In the first half of this year, KUKA received orders for Livzon Pharmaceutical’s cold storage renovation, ANTA Fila omni-channel central warehouse and other projects in the field of logistics and warehousing, and successfully obtained orders for the hospital project in Changchun Guowen New District in the medical field.

.
At the same time, KUKA actively assists Midea Group to improve the level of intelligent manufacturing.
As of July 2021, the usage density of Midea robots has exceeded 320 units per 10,000 people, and plans to achieve the goal of 530 units per 10,000 people in 2023
.