As of 1st October 2006, Beijer Electronics completed the recently announced transaction regarding the sale of 15 percent of the group's business area Automation - Beijer Electronics Automation AB - to Mitsubishi Electric. Consequently, a new board of Beijer Electronics Automation AB has been elected, consisting of Stig-Arne Blom from the parent company board, Göran Sigfridsson, CEO of Beijer Electronics AB, Lars Ekelund, Managing Director of Beijer Electronics Automation AB and Noriaki Himi, president and responsible for industrial automation, Mitsubishi Electric Europe.
The agreement with Mitsubishi Electric is, as announced earlier, a part of the deal where business area Automation was granted the distribution rights for Mitsubishi Electric's agencies in Denmark and the Baltic States and those that not already were held in Finland . The new markets are expected to add some SEK 100 M to Automation's sales in 2008.
As a part of the expansion, Beijer Electronics signed a letter of intent with Finnish UTU Powel Oy to acquire parts of their businesses in Finland and the Baltic States , with a total sales of some SEK 40 M . A final contract of sale has now been concluded and the transaction came into force on 1st October 2006.
The deal comprises sales of mainly frequency inverters from Mitsubishi Electric in Finland and Mitsubishi Electric's entire product range in the Baltic States like control systems, frequency inverters, servo systems and robots
The acquisition also creates a good platform for future expansion, by benefiting from Beijer Electronics' shared Nordic organization for marketing, purchase and logistics. The goal is to further advance its market positions in the region and increase sales of Beijer Electronics' proprietary products within the HMI area.
The contract of sale with UTU Powel Oy means that Beijer Electronics' business area Automation acquires the business of the parts concerned in Finland and Estonia, and subsidiaries in Latvia and Lithuania . The acquired business has totally some 20 staff. The businesses were consolidated into Beijer Electronics' accounts from the fourth-quarter 2006. They are expected to exert a positive influence on the profit, but initially load the operating margin within business area Automation.