The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2009. It involves Gurit taking over Suzhou Red Maple’s parent company Cheer Tech Investment Ltd, Hong Kong, from Windy Shore Holdings Ltd, British Virgin Islands.
The acquisition price is in the range of CHF40 million, consisting of an initial payment and performance-based instalments over the next three years.
Suzhou Red Maple Wind Blade Mould Co Ltd, a producer of wind turbine blade moulds based in Taicang, Jiangsu, China, has around 500 employees and sales of around CHF30 million in 2009. With this acquisition Gurit expands its offering to the wind energy market and in particular to the infusion technology segment.
With this acquisition, China becomes Gurit’s largest manufacturing base worldwide, with over 800 people employed in Taicang, Tianjin, and Quingdao.
Following the acquisition of Suzhou Red Maple, Gurit plans to continue to support wind turbine blade manufacturers in Asia, and then to expand the wind turbine blade mould technology globally. Wind energy is one of Gurit’s key markets. Suzhou Red Maple’s management team led by Gabriel Mironov will continue to run the operation. Mironov, a Canadian citizen, is appointed General Manager of the new Composite Process Equipment market area. “With the acquisition of the growing and profitable Red Maple organisation, Gurit significantly strengthens its footprint in the Asian growth market, expands its offering to all wind energy customers in Asia and later globally, and gains a strong entrepreneurial group of people around Gabriel Mironov in its organisation,” says Rudolf Hadorn, CEO of Gurit.
Gurit Holding AG (SIX Swiss Exchange: GUR), Wattwil, Switzerland, specialises in the development and manufacture of advanced composite materials and related technologies. Its key markets are wind energy, transportation and marine. Gurit recently acquired competitor High Modulus of New Zealand and now has production sites and offices in Switzerland, Germany, the UK, Canada, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, India, Singapore and China.
