Nanjing Estun Automation Technology Co. this week acquired Carl Cloos Schweißtechnik GmbH, or Carl Cloos Welding Technology, for €196 million ($216.44 million U.S.). The Estun Group said it hopes to become a world-leading robotics company.
Haiger, Germany-based Cloos Group was founded in 1919 and develops, manufactures, and delivers robotic welding systems such as its QIROX compact cell to more than 40 countries worldwide. It has 11 subsidiaries and nine production facilities in Germany, China, India, the U.K., Hungary, Austria, and North America.
Estun was founded in 1993 and is listed in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The company claims to be a world-leading supplier of drive systems and has expanded its product portfolio to include servo motors, motion control systems, and industrial robotics.
International partnership
“[Cloos] has found the perfect partner for the perfect partner for the strategic expansion of its welding and robotics offering with the Estun Group, thus ensuring sustainable growth,” stated Sieghard Thomas, managing director of Cloos. “Robotics is currently finding its way into many industrial sectors, leading to ever faster innovation, higher investment totals, and shorter lifecycles, and the need to balance this through economies of scale and market penetration.”
Estun worked with Hong Kong-based private equity firm China Renaissance Capital Investment (CRCI), and Ebner Stolz and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP advised it on the acquisition.
The leadership and location of Cloos will remain in Germany, said the companies. “We are delighted that we have found the perfect partner in Estun — a family business that shares our values and the standards of product and quality goals, and with which Cloos will continue to evolve significantly,” said Carl-Eberhard Cloos, managing partner of the Cloos Group.
From left: Tony Zhu from CRCI, Sieghard Thomas and Carl Cloos from Cloos, and Bob Wu and Kan Wu from Estun. Source: Carl Cloos Welding Technology
Estun pays a premium for strategic acquisition
Estun’s total sales in 2018 were approximately €184 million ($203 million), less than what it paid for Cloos, noted Georg Stieler, an expert in Chinese robotics investments, in Automations Praxis. The company did have help from CRCI and some experience with foreign acquisitions, he said.
“In 2016, the company acquired 20% of Euclid Labs in Italy, [and] in 2017, they acquired TrioMotion in the U.K. and MAI in Germany,” he added. “All of these, however, were much smaller transactions.” Euclid Labs s.r.l. will have other strategic partners and will eventually be listed as an independent company.
China is investing in making its robotics industry competitive amid trade tensions and a possible global manufacturing slowdown, said Stieler.
European regulatory authorities were wary of Chinese acquisitions of technology companies immediately after Midea Group’s purchase of KUKA AG for $4.5 billion in 2016. KUKA is one of the top four industrial automation providers.
In addition, Stieler said, welding is 25% of the Chinese robotics market, behind loading and unloading applications at 44%. It remains attractive for global automation investments, even as growth in robotics sales slows.
The Robot Report has launched the Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum, which will be on Dec. 9-10 in Santa Clara, Calif. The conference and expo focuses on improving the design, development and manufacture of next-generation healthcare robots. Learn more about the Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum.
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