Qu Dao-kui talked about Chinese companies buying overseas robot companies: they have to work hard

The acquisition of the German robot giant KUKA by the China-based Group has just settled. Shanghai Electric also reportedly wanted to acquire Comau, a robot company owned by Fiat, a well-known Italian car company. In addition, EVOLUT robot system integrator in Hougou, Italy, was previously the operator of Anhui Eft Robotics. The rhythm of Chinese robotic companies’ multinational “sweeping goods” is getting faster and faster.

Since becoming the world's largest industrial robot market in 2013, Chinese companies are no longer content to serve only as the world's largest robot market. Through the acquisition of well-known overseas brands, occupying the domestic high-end market, and taking the opportunity to expand overseas markets, eventually embarked on the road to internationalization, has become the current choice of many Chinese companies.

But can overseas acquisitions really bring about the upgrading of Chinese robotics technology and help Chinese companies achieve leapfrogging? Can overseas companies that buy back at high prices really integrate with Chinese companies? This seems to be a question that needs time to be tested?

Round table conversation

“We need to walk on two legs. This requires our enterprises to accelerate their own development through the acquisition of such financial means. But at the same time, our internal strength and basic skills must be well trained. This must not be discarded, but also the core. None of the international companies have developed through mergers and acquisitions,” said Song Duokui, president of Xinsong Robot Automation Co., Ltd. in an interview at the 2016 Changzhou Delta Intellectual Property Summit held on October 11.

Qu Dao-kui

Is the money to buy something that is not the core thing?

When the US group acquired Germany's KUKA Roboter, it was met with verbal opposition from the German government. The German government does not expect the German robot manufacturer of a hundred years to be acquired by China in this way, and is even more worried about the outflow of technology from Koka.

For Chinese companies, there is still a big gap between Chinese robotics companies and foreign robot brands. In addition to expanding overseas markets, companies that acquire overseas companies are even more critical to the leap-forward development of foreign companies' technology.

After a three-month acquisition, Midea Group finally acquired KUKA at a price of 115 euros per share and eventually held nearly 95% of KUKA's shares.

Can foreign companies that have been painstakingly fetched by Chinese companies help China's robotics companies to achieve technological leap?

Qu Dao-kui said in response to the above-mentioned questions that through mergers and acquisitions, the use of financial means to accelerate the development of his company is a very good approach and tool. The development of robotics companies is also inseparable from such basic market development. method.

“But from another point of view, the question of whether or not money can be bought is really a core issue. This is another issue. After Chinese companies acquired overseas acquisitions over the years, many things were collected, but they received Many things are likely to have entered a stage of decline or a recession," Qu Dao-kui said.