中國私募股權基金收購意大利機器人企業
Agic Capital, the Chinese private equity fund launched last year, has bought a European industrial robotics business — in the latest example of the country’s push to gain access to western automation technology.
去年成立的中國私募股權基金漢德資本(Agic Capital)收購了一家歐洲工業機器人公司——這是中國努力獲取西方自動化技術的最新一例。
On Sunday, Agic said it had agreed to acquire Gimatic, an Italian supplier of robotic end-of-arm tools valued at between 100m and 150m. It did not disclose a specific price.
週日，漢德表示已經同意收購意大利機械臂前端裝置供應商Gimatic，對該企業的估值介於1億到1.5億歐元之間。漢德並未公開具體收購價。
Agic was founded by former Deutsche Bank executive Henry Cai, a veteran dealmaker who started Agic with the goal of “shaping smart industries”, focusing on the so-called fourth industrial revolution, in automation and connectivity.
漢德創始人是德意志銀行(Deutsche Bank)前高管蔡洪平(Henry Cai)。這名資深交易撮合者創立漢德的目標是“智造未來”，專注於由自動化和連接性扮演主角的所謂第四次工業革命。
Its Gimatic deal is its first as a sole acquirer, but it was a member of the consortium — led by China National Chemical Corp — that purchased KraussMaffei Group for 925m in January. KraussMaffei, a specialist producer of plastics and rubber, is one of Germany’s largest machinery suppliers. Its sale was, at the time, the biggest-ever Chinese acquisition of a German company.
收購Gimatic是漢德首次作爲唯一收購者進行交易，但漢德曾是由中國化工集團公司(CNCC)牽頭的一個財團的成員，該財團在今年1月斥資9.25億歐元收購了克勞斯瑪菲集團(KraussMaffei)。克勞斯瑪菲是一家塑料和橡膠領域的專業設備生產商，是德國最大的機械供應商之一。當時這是中國對德國公司歷來最大的收購交易。
While the acquisition of Gimatic is relatively small, it plays into a growing theme of Chinese investment in automation, following last month’s offer from Midea, the Chinese home appliance maker, to purchase German robotics company Kuka.
儘管漢德對Gimatic的收購交易規模相對較小，但這筆交易切中了中國大力投資於自動化這個日益上升的主題。在此之前，上月中國家電製造商美的(Midea)向德國機器人公司庫卡(Kuka)發出收購要約。
That deal valued the business at 4.6bn but led some government officials to worry about protecting German technology. Economics minister Sigmar Gabriel has been trying to put together a German or European consortium to offer a counterbid.
那筆交易對庫卡的估值達到46億歐元，但也導致一些政府官員爲保護德國技術操心。德國經濟部長西格馬爾•加布里爾(Sigmar Gabriel)一直試圖組織一個德國或者歐洲的財團發出競爭性收購要約。
Gimatic, founded 31 years ago, has been growing its sales by more than 20 per cent a year for the past three years, with four-fifths of its business stemming from Europe. Asia accounted for less than a tenth of sales but is seen as the market with the greatest potential.
31年前成立的Gimatic過去3年的銷售額每年增長逾20%，其五分之四業務來自歐洲。亞洲在其銷售額中的比例不到十分之一，但亞洲被視爲潛力最大的市場。
Agic’s strategy is “top-line growth through internationalisation,” said Heiko von Dewitz, Agic’s Munich-based managing partner. “In the past [Gimatic] has been more margin than growth focused — we’re going to change that a bit.”
漢德的策略是“通過國際化實現收入增長，”漢德駐慕尼黑的管理合夥人海科•馮德維茨(Heiko von Dewitz)表示，“過去(Gimatic)一直更專注於利潤率，而非增長——我們將要對此稍加改變。”
Its deal for Gimatic aligns with the industrial strategy spearheaded by Beijing last year to upgrade infrastructure, make China less dependent on manual labour and become a tier-one player in manufacturing.
漢德收購Gimatic的交易符合北京方面去年提出的工業戰略，即升級基礎設施、減少中國對體力勞動的依賴、成爲一流製造業國家。
“Fifty per cent of the global growth in industrial automation and robotics is in China,” said Mr von Dewitz. “Depending on the sources you look at, the global automation market is growing at 10 to 15 per cent. China is growing at 20 per cent. That gives you an idea of how much momentum there is.”
“工業自動化和機器人領域的全球增長有50%在中國，”馮德維茨說，“根據你所看到的不同數據來源，全球自動化市場正以10%到15%的增長率增長，而中國的增速達到20%。這讓你對中國的增長勢頭有多大有一個大致概念。”
He said there is a huge opportunity for European technology companies to expand into China. But while the big companies have figured it out, companies with between $30m and $150m in revenue are further behind. “They know China is a strategic must, but they don’t know how to tackle it,” he said.
他表示，對歐洲科技公司來說，擴張進入中國蘊含了巨大的商機。但儘管大企業都明白這一點，收入在3000萬美元到1.5億美元之間的公司還落在後面。“它們知道進軍中國在戰略上是勢在必行的，但它們不知道應該如何着手，”他說。
