It is understood that Mulinsen intends to acquire Landvance, the lighting business brand of the world's three major lighting giants, Osram. The sudden announcement of the German government's in-depth investigation casts a shadow over the prospects of the acquisition.
On November 2, when the reporter tried to learn more about the German government's involvement in the investigation from Mu Linsen's board secretary Lai Aimei, the other party said: "The company is in the stage of suspension of trading and major asset restructuring, and it is not convenient to express its position."
The German government’s recent attitude towards Chinese companies’ acquisition of German companies seems to be strict. For example, on October 24, the German government has revoked Fujian Hongxin Fund’s license to acquire German chip equipment manufacturer Aixtron.
However, some people in the market told reporters that compared with the acquisition of Aixtron, the possibility of Mulinsen’s acquisition of Landvance being "intercepted" by the German government is unlikely, because Mulinsen’s acquisition was aimed at the downstream business of lighting. , Belongs to the civilian rather than military industry.
"Going to sea" acquisitions have twists
On October 27, Deutsche Welle’s website reported that the German Ministry of Economic Affairs will further investigate the acquisition of Landvance, a lighting business brand under German lighting company Osram, by Chinese companies. Mulinsen, a leading domestic LED packaging company, is one of the "protagonists" of this overseas acquisition.
On the morning of July 27 this year, Mulinsen announced that a Chinese consortium composed of its strategic investors IDG Capital and Yiwu State-owned Capital Operation Center had successfully won the Landvance bid, and the purchase price would exceed RMB 2.931 billion.
On November 2nd, when the reporter asked Mu Linsen's board secretary Lai Aimei about the German government's involvement in the acquisition, the other party said: "The company is in the stage of suspension of trading and planning for a major asset reorganization, and it is not convenient to express its position."
Looking back at the beginning, in order to prepare for this overseas merger and acquisition case, Mulinsen was struggling. According to Mulinsen’s plan, after the Chinese consortium it participated in completed the acquisition of all the shares of Landvance through the platform-"Mingxin Optoelectronics", Mulinsen will further initiate an tender offer to acquire the equity of "Mingxin Optoelectronics", which will eventually Landvance "installed into" a listed company.
Mulinsen's acquisition of Landvance has constituted a major asset reorganization. Since July 15 this year, shares in the Mulinsen secondary market have been in a state of suspension.
At present, Mulinsen has not disclosed the investigation of the acquisition by the German government through an announcement. The company routinely stated in its latest major asset restructuring suspension progress announcement on October 29 that, as of now, the relevant due diligence, audit, and evaluation work involved in this major asset restructuring is in progress, and all parties involved in the transaction plan It still needs further demonstration and improvement.
A third-party person who did not want to be named revealed to reporters that at this time, Mulinsen was unwilling to make too many statements to the outside world because he was worried that media reports would cause the German government to over-interpret, which would hinder the progress of the acquisition.
Landvance's main business includes traditional light source business, LED lighting source and lamps business, smart home lighting business, etc. It has global sales channels, customer networks and strong brand influence. And Mulinsen, who started with LED packaging, is currently positive about the expansion of the downstream application market.
The future of the acquisition is uncertain
For Mulinsen, it has been difficult to successfully bid for Landvance before, because the market competition is very fierce. After Osram announced that it would sell its lighting assets in November last year, many domestic lighting manufacturers were eager to try. Companies including Feilo Acoustics and Dehao Runda claimed to participate in the competition.
A person who had participated in the Landvance bidding in his company recently revealed to reporters that his company later chose to give up because of two reasons. One is that Osram's asking price is too high, and the other is that part of the patented Osram The side is still reluctant to delegate power.
Lai Aimei, secretary of the board of directors of Mulinsen, told reporters that the company is considering participating in the acquisition of Landvance, one is to expand the export of the company's products, and the other is to achieve synergy between international brands.
"The lighting industry is a traditional industry, and Osram's lighting business has a long history. European and American society has always had a strong sense of identity with traditional brands. Let alone Chinese companies going to European and American societies to create a lighting brand, even if local European and American companies want to re-train one Lighting brands are also difficult. By acquiring Landvance, Mulinsen can produce good synergy effects. Mulinsen can directly participate in globalization through acquisitions, and can gain global production bases, global sales networks, and further build international brand awareness. Such an acquisition layout is lower than the cost of building a production base overseas and establishing a sales network." Wang Fei, director of the research department of LEDinside, said to reporters.
Before the German Ministry of Economic Affairs reported that it was investigating Mulinsen’s acquisition of Landvance, another Chinese company’s acquisition of a German company had just been "ordered" to stop. On October 24, German chip equipment manufacturer Aixtron announced that the German Ministry of Economic Affairs has withdrawn on the 21st the license order granted to Fujian Hongxin Fund of China to acquire the company for 670 million euros on September 8 this year. This transaction will be affected. Restart the assessment.
In less than a week, there were two incidents of obstacles to Chinese-funded acquisitions of German companies, and the outside world was a little surprised. Regarding the reason for the withdrawal of the Aixtron acquisition, the German "Le Monde" quoted the German Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Machig as saying that it was due to the emergence of "security-related news."
The aforementioned third party, who did not want to be named, told reporters that Mulinsen currently denies that the German government has vetoed the Landvance acquisition.
Wang Fei said that the reason why the German government is now strictly reviewing Chinese acquisitions has something to do with the current large-scale acquisitions of German companies by Chinese companies. "Several of the German companies acquired by Chinese companies are related to core industries in Germany, which has caused excessive tension on the German side."
Relevant data shows that in the first half of this year, there were 164 mergers and acquisitions of European companies related to China, of which 37 involved German companies. From the perspective of country distribution, German companies also have the most mergers and acquisitions.
Wang Fei believes that it is unlikely that Mulinsen’s acquisition of Landvance will be "intercepted" by the German government. The reason is that Mulinsen’s acquisition of the downstream lighting business is mainly related to civilian rather than military industry.
However, Liu Liang, an analyst at Industrial Securities, believes that the acquisition of Mulinsen is still facing unknown factors, and there are still variables whether the acquisition can be successful.
