Midea to wholly acquire KUKA AG

Chinese appliance maker Midea Group announced on November 23 that it planned to acquire the remaining five percent of KUKA AG from minority shareholders. KUKA will become a wholly-owned subsidiary and delist from the German bourse, though there are some complicated legal procedures ahead. 

Midea started the takeover in 2015 and indirectly acquired 95 percent of KUKA through subsidiaries for 30 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion) in 2016. Midea and KUKA invested in a robotics park in Foshan of southern Guangdong Province in 2018. The second phase of the project began this year.

CTO of KUKA China LI Hongwei told Jiemian News that they were working on team organization, R&D, and supply chain in China.  KUKA AG swallowed a 100 million euro tough loss last year due to the pandemic. It only found its feet this year, by Q3, KUKA had made 2.4 billion euros, up 26.8 percent from last year. Its after-tax profit more than doubled to 29.8 million euros.