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China's Sany to acquire German Putzmeister
2012-01-29–(cited from ft.com and by Chris Bryant) — China has laid claim to a pillar of German industry after Sany Heavy Industry, the country’s largest construction equipment group, said it would acquire Putzmeister, a Mittelstand company that makes high-tech concrete pumps.
The deal is among the largest in which a Chinese company acquires one of the family-owned, niche-focused, German engineering groups – the backbone of the German economy. The term Mittelstand covers Germany’s legion of small and medium-sized family groups.
Sany Heavy Industry, whose chairman is China’s richest man, and Citic PE Advisors, a Chinese private equity company, will acquire all of Putzmeister, with Citic retaining a minority shareholding. The parties declined to disclose a transaction price but people close to the deal said its value was somewhere in the region of €500m.
The Mittelstand’s engineering prowess and strong brands are highly attractive to potential foreign suitors but tight family control has been a barrier to widespread Chinese takeovers in Germany.
The bid could herald a new era of Chinese dealmaking in Europe as Chinese companies look to “go global” and reduce their exposure to their domestic economy. Zoomlion, Sany’s Chinese rival, bought Italy’s concrete pumps maker Cifa in 2009.
Other German Mittelstand companies now in Chinese hands include Waldrich Coburg, a maker of milling machines, and Dürrkopp Adler, a maker of sewing machines.
“There will be surprise that a former star of the German economy and a hidden champion has been taken over by the Chinese. It’s a wake-up call,” said Hermann Simon, chairman of Simon-Kucher & Partners, a German consultancy.
“There is still a perception that Chinese companies produce only cheap wares. Sany is different – they are the vanguard of new Chinese competition.”
In 2009 Sany Heavy Industry, which makes a wide range of machinery from excavators to mobile cranes, overtook Putzmeister as the world’s largest concrete pumps manufacturer by sales. The Shanghai-listed company – often referred to as China’s Caterpillar – wants to build a global Chinese construction equipment brand and already has plants in the US, Brazil, India and Germany.
But most of its sales are still at home where government measures have cooled the real estate market and reduced demand for construction equipment. In Europe, Sany has until now lacked a large sales and service network and established brand name.
Last year Sany opened a greenfield €100m research and development plant near Cologne – the biggest Chinese corporate investment in Europe – explaining that if it wanted to become a world-class company it needed to reach the best global manufacturing and engineering talent.
Putzmeister, based near Stuttgart, has about 3,000 employees. Revenues reached a record €1bn in 2007 but fell by about half during 2008 and 2009, leading to hundreds of job cuts.
Although the company has returned to growth and profitability, revenues last year were about €570m.
A person close to the deal said Karl Schlecht, 79, the company’s founder, had had trouble finding a successor and had therefore sought an investor.
Putzmeister’s truck-mounted boom pumps – normally used to pour concrete for new bridges or high-rise buildings – were used to help cool the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Putzmeister pumps were also used in the construction of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
Putzmeister’s headquarters is set to become Sany’s global non-Chinese centre for concrete equipment and will have a high degree of autonomy, the parties said. Say will continue to focus on the Chinese market.
Liang Wengen, Sany’s chairman, said: “With this merger, Putzmeister and Sany will create a new and global market leader for concrete pumps.”
Mr Schlecht said: “This merger is a global showcase transaction. Say is one of the few large Chinese conglomerates which is personally operated by the founder, who is also the majority shareholder.
“[Liang Wengen] not only shares our entrepreneurial spirit, but also Putzmeister’s vision and corporate values.”
The transaction is subject to approval by regulatory authorities. Morgan Stanley advised Putzmeister.
---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:05 PM ----------
China publishes world highest-resolution Lunar photo | China's Great Science and Technology
China publishes world highest-resolution lunar photo
2012-02-07 — China on Monday published a full coverage map of the moon, as well as several high-resolution images of the celestial body, captured by the country’s second moon orbiter, the Chang’e-2.
The map and images, released by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), are the highest-resolution photos of the entirety of the moon’s surface to be published thus far, said Liu Dongkui, deputy chief commander of China’s lunar probe project.
The images were photographed by a charge-coupled device (CCD) stereo camera on the Chang’e-2 from heights of 100 km and 15 km over the lunar surface between October 2010 and May 2011, according to a statement from SASTIND.
The resolution of the images obtained from Chang’e-2 is 17 times greater than those taken by the its predecessor, the Chang’e-1.
If there were airports and harbors on the moon, the Chang’e-1 could simply identify them, while the Chang’e-2 would be able to detect planes or ships inside of them, said Tong Qingxi, an academic from the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The scientists also spotted traces of the previous Apollo mission in the images, said Yan Jun, chief application scientist for China’s lunar exploration project.
Several countries, including the United States, have obtained lunar images with higher resolution, but have not published full-coverage images of the moon with a resolution of seven meters or greater, as China has done, Tong said.
Scientists have made adjustments to the original data to more accurately reflect the topographic and geomorphologic features of the moon, the SASTIND statement said.
Chang’e-2, named after a legendary Chinese moon goddess, was launched on Oct. 1, 2010.
In November 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao unveiled an image taken by the satellite of the moon’s Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows, an area where the future Chang’e-3 moon probe may land.
The launch of the Chang’e-3 is scheduled for 2013, marking the first time for a Chinese spacecraft to land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body.
The photos of the possible landing site, combined with China’s complete moon map, will provide basic data for the country’s future moon landing missions, Tong said.
The images will also help scientists to understand the moon’s geological structure, as well as give them information about the concentration and distribution of matter on the moon’s surface, Yan said.
The satellite is currently orbiting the moon’s second Lagrange Point (L2), located more than 1.5 million km away from Earth.
China's Sany to acquire German Putzmeister
2012-01-29–(cited from ft.com and by Chris Bryant) — China has laid claim to a pillar of German industry after Sany Heavy Industry, the country’s largest construction equipment group, said it would acquire Putzmeister, a Mittelstand company that makes high-tech concrete pumps.
The deal is among the largest in which a Chinese company acquires one of the family-owned, niche-focused, German engineering groups – the backbone of the German economy. The term Mittelstand covers Germany’s legion of small and medium-sized family groups.
Sany Heavy Industry, whose chairman is China’s richest man, and Citic PE Advisors, a Chinese private equity company, will acquire all of Putzmeister, with Citic retaining a minority shareholding. The parties declined to disclose a transaction price but people close to the deal said its value was somewhere in the region of €500m.
The Mittelstand’s engineering prowess and strong brands are highly attractive to potential foreign suitors but tight family control has been a barrier to widespread Chinese takeovers in Germany.
The bid could herald a new era of Chinese dealmaking in Europe as Chinese companies look to “go global” and reduce their exposure to their domestic economy. Zoomlion, Sany’s Chinese rival, bought Italy’s concrete pumps maker Cifa in 2009.
Other German Mittelstand companies now in Chinese hands include Waldrich Coburg, a maker of milling machines, and Dürrkopp Adler, a maker of sewing machines.
“There will be surprise that a former star of the German economy and a hidden champion has been taken over by the Chinese. It’s a wake-up call,” said Hermann Simon, chairman of Simon-Kucher & Partners, a German consultancy.
“There is still a perception that Chinese companies produce only cheap wares. Sany is different – they are the vanguard of new Chinese competition.”
In 2009 Sany Heavy Industry, which makes a wide range of machinery from excavators to mobile cranes, overtook Putzmeister as the world’s largest concrete pumps manufacturer by sales. The Shanghai-listed company – often referred to as China’s Caterpillar – wants to build a global Chinese construction equipment brand and already has plants in the US, Brazil, India and Germany.
But most of its sales are still at home where government measures have cooled the real estate market and reduced demand for construction equipment. In Europe, Sany has until now lacked a large sales and service network and established brand name.
Last year Sany opened a greenfield €100m research and development plant near Cologne – the biggest Chinese corporate investment in Europe – explaining that if it wanted to become a world-class company it needed to reach the best global manufacturing and engineering talent.
Putzmeister, based near Stuttgart, has about 3,000 employees. Revenues reached a record €1bn in 2007 but fell by about half during 2008 and 2009, leading to hundreds of job cuts.
Although the company has returned to growth and profitability, revenues last year were about €570m.
A person close to the deal said Karl Schlecht, 79, the company’s founder, had had trouble finding a successor and had therefore sought an investor.
Putzmeister’s truck-mounted boom pumps – normally used to pour concrete for new bridges or high-rise buildings – were used to help cool the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Putzmeister pumps were also used in the construction of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
Putzmeister’s headquarters is set to become Sany’s global non-Chinese centre for concrete equipment and will have a high degree of autonomy, the parties said. Say will continue to focus on the Chinese market.
Liang Wengen, Sany’s chairman, said: “With this merger, Putzmeister and Sany will create a new and global market leader for concrete pumps.”
Mr Schlecht said: “This merger is a global showcase transaction. Say is one of the few large Chinese conglomerates which is personally operated by the founder, who is also the majority shareholder.
“[Liang Wengen] not only shares our entrepreneurial spirit, but also Putzmeister’s vision and corporate values.”
The transaction is subject to approval by regulatory authorities. Morgan Stanley advised Putzmeister.
---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:05 PM ----------
China publishes world highest-resolution Lunar photo | China's Great Science and Technology
China publishes world highest-resolution lunar photo
2012-02-07 — China on Monday published a full coverage map of the moon, as well as several high-resolution images of the celestial body, captured by the country’s second moon orbiter, the Chang’e-2.
The map and images, released by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), are the highest-resolution photos of the entirety of the moon’s surface to be published thus far, said Liu Dongkui, deputy chief commander of China’s lunar probe project.
The images were photographed by a charge-coupled device (CCD) stereo camera on the Chang’e-2 from heights of 100 km and 15 km over the lunar surface between October 2010 and May 2011, according to a statement from SASTIND.
The resolution of the images obtained from Chang’e-2 is 17 times greater than those taken by the its predecessor, the Chang’e-1.
If there were airports and harbors on the moon, the Chang’e-1 could simply identify them, while the Chang’e-2 would be able to detect planes or ships inside of them, said Tong Qingxi, an academic from the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The scientists also spotted traces of the previous Apollo mission in the images, said Yan Jun, chief application scientist for China’s lunar exploration project.
Several countries, including the United States, have obtained lunar images with higher resolution, but have not published full-coverage images of the moon with a resolution of seven meters or greater, as China has done, Tong said.
Scientists have made adjustments to the original data to more accurately reflect the topographic and geomorphologic features of the moon, the SASTIND statement said.
Chang’e-2, named after a legendary Chinese moon goddess, was launched on Oct. 1, 2010.
In November 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao unveiled an image taken by the satellite of the moon’s Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows, an area where the future Chang’e-3 moon probe may land.
The launch of the Chang’e-3 is scheduled for 2013, marking the first time for a Chinese spacecraft to land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body.
The photos of the possible landing site, combined with China’s complete moon map, will provide basic data for the country’s future moon landing missions, Tong said.
The images will also help scientists to understand the moon’s geological structure, as well as give them information about the concentration and distribution of matter on the moon’s surface, Yan said.
The satellite is currently orbiting the moon’s second Lagrange Point (L2), located more than 1.5 million km away from Earth.
