Strengthening of software competencies for industrial automation
S&T has signed a purchase agreement to acquire AIS Automation in Dresden, Germany from Meyer Burger (Germany). The agreed purchase price amounts to approximately €13m and includes the acquisition of all business areas and of approximately 140 employees of AIS. The transaction is subject to antitrust approval in Germany and is expected to be completed at the end of November 2019.
For S&T AG, the acquisition is a further strategic step in the expansion of its IoT Solutions business in the Industry 4.0 area and expands the corresponding software competencies and capacities of the S&T Group. AIS is a software company that has been specialising in the development of innovative and flexible software solutions in the field of automation technology for over 25 years.
In 2018, AIS generated revenues of around €12m and value-accretive profit margins compared to the S&T Group. As a provider of automation solutions, the company offers a wide range of innovative development tools and successfully markets its solutions in a variety of sectors, such as the manufacturing and rail industry.
The acquisition provides S&T with a complementary product and solution portfolio to its current offering, such as AIS's IIoT service platform ‘Equipment Cloud’, which will add to S&T's own IoT software framework ‘SUSiEtec’.
Hannes Niederhauser, CEO of S&T, said: "I am delighted that we were able to conclude such a highly synergistic deal with the AIS acquisition. The portfolio fits perfectly into our current IoT software and services offering for IoT and Industry 4.0. The acquired software products and highly qualified engineers of AIS will significantly strengthen our IoT Solutions business. This results in high synergies and cross-selling potentials for the entire S&T Group."