Chinese private equity company issues controlling stake offer for Schott Moritex

Beijing-based CITIC Capital Partners, which is the private equity arm of CITIC Capital Holdings Limited, has issued a tender offer to acquire a controlling stake in machine vision lens manufacturer Schott Moritex Corporation.

Though terms of the deal were not provided, media reports suggest that CITIC Capital is likely to acquire a 71.6% stake for 1.8 billion Japanese Yen (US $15 million). CITIC Capital, a company that manages US $2.6 billion, is planning to make the investment via its second Japanese cross-border focused buyout fund, CITIC Capital Japan Partners II.

Schott Moritex develops and sells a range of devices and systems for such fields and technologies as machine vision, optical lenses, software, optical fiber, automated optical alignment, and ball lenses. In addition, the company is active in research and development. The company holds the second largest global share of the machine vision lenses market, and the fourth in the machine vision LED lighting for image processing applications market, according to a statement released by CITIC Capital.

The statement mentions that worldwide demand for machine vision products is expected to increase, and that Schott Moritex plans to build up its domestic and overseas sales strategy across Asia, particularly in China. A number of recent reports have shown that individual companies and the industry on the whole have seen success regarding exports to China:

• A VDMA presentation at VISION 2014 indicates that the US and Asia (particularly China) will play a large role in the overall increase in the German machine vision industry, and that in 2013, exports to China also rose well above average.
• A report from The Boston Consulting Group indicates that China is identified as the fastest-growing market for imported industrial robots.
• IDS Imaging Development Systems’ export ratio rose to 40% in 2013, up from 32% the previous year and sales to China more than doubled.

"CITIC Capital will leverage its unique capabilities, such as an extensive network and track record throughout China and the rest of Asia…to support the further growth of Schott Moritex," said Hironobu Nakano, head of CITIC Capital Partners Japan Limited in the press release.

CITIC Capital has concluded an agreement on the tender offer with Schott AG, the parent company of Schott Nippon K.K., which is supported by Schott Moritex, according to a the statement.

View the company statement.

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