Leading industrial PC maker Advantech Co (研華) plans to acquire Aures Technologies SA, a French company known for its point-of-sale (POS) and kiosk equipment, to expand its global coverage in smart retail products and services.
Advantech proposed to acquire 3.938 million Aures shares from the French firm’s major shareholder and through a public tender offer at up to 6.7 euros per share, the PC maker said in a statement after announcing the deal at the Taiwan Stock Exchange late on Friday.
The company aims to acquire up to 100 percent equity of Aures, a well-known brand in the western market with a strong presence for its POS equipment in Europe, Australia and the US, the statement said.
Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
Advantech also plans to subscribe newly issued convertible bonds from Aures, totaling 5 million euros (US$5.35 million), to support its working capital, it added.
The companies expect to close the transaction following the completion of internal approval processes by both parties and regulatory approval from relevant authorities, the statement said.
The deal comes as the global retail industry has gone through significant challenges in the past few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, global inflation and interest rate hikes. At the same time, the rise of artificial intelligence and shifts in consumer behavior have spurred industry transformation and consolidation trends.
It has identified smart retail as a sector with significant potential and believes the deal would create greater synergy, as the two firms complement each other in terms of regional coverage, product portfolio and organizational capabilities, said Advantech, the first regional industrial PC vendor dedicated to smart cities and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Following the acquisition, Aures would maintain its independent operations, while Advantech assists in optimizing its management system, creating synergies through product roadmap integration, technical support and cross-selling initiatives, the statement said.
Advantech on Friday also reported net profit of NT$1.99 billion (US$61.1 million) for the January-to-March quarter, which was down 32.7 percent from a year earlier and 13 percent lower than the previous quarter.
Earnings per share were NT$2.32 in the quarter, the lowest since the second quarter of 2021, when it was NT$2.31 per share, while gross and operating margins declined to 40 percent and 13.8 percent respectively.
First-quarter revenue was NT$13.88 billion, down 20.21 percent year-on-year and 8.31 percent quarter-on-quarter, as the company’s business units — comprising embedded IoT, industrial cloud and video, applied computing, industrial IoT and service IoT — all underperformed with double-digit percentage declines.
By region, sales in Taiwan in the quarter outperformed other markets, with annual growth of 9 percent and shipments to China posted only a single-digit percentage fall on the back of transportation and semiconductor equipment-related projects, the company said.
However, sales to North America, Europe, North Asia and emerging markets registered double-digit percentage declines on an annual basis due to weak demand, it said.
Advantech said challenges of overall economy and regional markets remain severe for this quarter and customers are still conservative about placing new orders.
However, the anticipated acceleration of global manufacturing automation, smart energy and infrastructure upgrades is expected to further drive the company’s related new project shipments in the second half of the year, it said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS