Barco has announced a strategic collaboration with Unilumin, a listed Chinese company and leading LED manufacturer and technology leader. It’s described as a wide-ranging partnership in order to secure a “cost-competitive supply of high-quality LED display components, that allows broader penetration in its core markets with differentiated Barco LED visualization hardware and software solutions.”
As part of this collaboration agreement Barco confirms its intent to acquire a minority stake of 5% into Unilumin, worth approximately EUR 54 million, in order to obtain a minority stake of 5%.
Since its foundation in 2004, Unilumin has established itself as one of the largest suppliers of LED display products with state-of-the-art technology. Unilumin is dedicated to provide customers with advanced LED technology solutions, and its business has covered 160 countries. Their excellence of innovation, first-class product performance and large-scale manufacturing ability, combined with Barco’s accumulated knowledge of LED and image processing solutions and the market in general is opening doors for a growing LED platform for Barco in the future.
Over the past couple of years, LED has started to find its way as high-end visualization solution in some of Barco’s core market segments. The evolution unveils a sizeable untapped potential adding distinct addressable market opportunities in markets such as Control Rooms, Pro-AV and other vertical market segments. The international collaboration with a key manufacturer like Unilumin offers Barco the capability to address this rapidly developing opportunity with cost-effective offerings and state-of-the-art technology.
At the same time, this partnership enhances Unilumin’s opportunity to broaden its geographic market and access new applications for their leading technology, while also leveraging Barco’s technology and experience in LED.
Jan De Witte, CEO of Barco said “Barco’s heritage includes some of the most impressive customized LED installations all around the world. However, LED technology continues to develop at a rapid pace and starts to open up interesting opportunities in mainstream markets in the Entertainment and Enterprise segments. With this partnership we are strengthening our global competitive play as we further expand the hardware component of our ‘hardware + software + services’ proposition towards our target markets.”
Both companies will also combine their competences and work together in the development of innovative technologies and new products. While Unilumin has the capability and the knowhow to produce large volumes of quality LED products, Barco’s LED image processing platform guarantees unprecedented results in every situation.
Mingfeng Lin, CEO of Unilumin said “Barco is our route to the high-end market offering access to a broader and more global audience. In addition, this cooperation also allows us to leverage Barco’s image processing capabilities in LED solutions. Both companies are convinced that the mutual recognition of each other’s strengths will result in a win-win opportunity and a long-term beneficial partnership for everyone involved, including the customer.”
Strategic partnership and acquiring a minority participation
Both parties expect the share-acquisition transaction to be closed as soon as possible, pending regulatory approvals.
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