The official website of the European Commission shows that on October 13, local time, the European Commission has approved China Midea Group Co., Ltd.'s acquisition of German KUKA Co., Ltd. in accordance with EU merger regulations.
During the United States' acquisition of KUKA, it was once verbally opposed by Germany and the European Union. But in the end, KUKA shareholders chose to accept Midea's takeover offer. After a three-month acquisition, Midea Group eventually held a 94.55% stake in German robotics company.
KUKA's core advantages are its comprehensive robot manufacturing strength and rich downstream application experience. Midea hopes that through this acquisition, it will lay out the midstream assembly in the field of robotics and accumulate downstream application experience to make its way for promotion in China. At the same time, white goods companies are labor-intensive companies, and replacing robots with robots has gradually become one of the trends in the manufacturing field. But for KUKA, the Chinese market has always been KUKA's weakness.
KUKA is headquartered in Augsburg, southern Germany, and has a century-old history. It is one of the world's major industrial robot manufacturers. KUKA is also the world's leading supplier of robots, automation equipment and solutions, focusing on the two major businesses of industrial robot manufacturing and automation control systems. Currently, 50% of KUKA's robots and control systems are used in the automotive industry.