Fair Friend of Taiwan to Add Five Factories in 2015

Chairman Jimmy Chu of the Fair Friend Ent. Group, Taiwan's biggest machine-tool maker by revenue, said the group will add five factories in 2015 through acquisition or partnership at cost exceeding US$100 million to  expand into machine tools for mobile device casings.

The group is in talks with two heavyweight machine-tool makers in China, with Chu aiming to take a 51% stake in one of the two, a debt-free listed company with annual revenue of around RMB1.5 billion (US$245.9 million); while the other has average revenue of around RMB2 billion (US$327.8 million).

Fair Friend is also proposing a joint venture to a big Russian company, and plans to acquire a manufacturer or set up a new factory in Brazil and Turkey. In Switzerland the group plans to acquire a 51% stake in a listed  company.

The planned expansions would raise the group's revenue from machine-tool sales to above NT$50 billion (US$1.6 billion) by 2015 from this year's NT$45 billion (US$1.5 billion).

Chu is known for aggressive acquisitions worldwide aimed to take the group to lead the global  machine-tool industry. Last year the group spent around 100 million euros to wholly acquire six subsidiaries of the German MAG Group, having this year acquired DMC of South Korea for 20 billion Won (US$14.5 million) and formed a joint venture with Cosmos for around US$10 million, with plans to buy one more 180-year-old German maker of lathes.

The chairman said Fair Trade Commission of South Korea had approved his group's 80% acquisition of DMC, a manufacturer of machining centers, lathing machines, milling machines, and boring machines.

The 50-50 joint venture, Feeler Cosmos, the group has formed with the Indian manufacturer Cosmos will acquire at least another Indian machine-tool maker, said the chairman. (KL)