A merger and acquisition announcement revealed the in-depth layout of the domestic high-end equipment leader Shanghai Electric in the field of robotics.
Shanghai Electric (601727.SH) announced on the evening of October 18 that the board of directors of the company reviewed and passed relevant motions and agreed to purchase 100% of the shares of Shanghai Ningsheng Industrial Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as Ningsheng Industrial) held by Shanghai Electric Holding Group Co., Ltd. in cash by its wholly-owned subsidiary Shanghai Electric Automation Group Co., LTD. The transaction price was 30,82,4211 yuan. Ningsheng Industry is a shareholding management platform for industrial robot-related businesses, holding 50% of the shares of Shanghai Fanuc Robot Co., LTD and 25% of the shares of Shanghai Fanuc International Trading Co., LTD.
In short, Shanghai Electric, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, has acquired the core assets of Shanghai Fanuc from its controlling shareholder. Upon completion of the transaction, Shanghai Fanuc will become a 50 per cent indirect joint venture owned by Shanghai Electric Automation Group. Shanghai Electric said that the transaction revolves around the company’s development strategy of “serving the national strategy, developing new quality productivity, and achieving high-quality development”, and will further promote the company’s strategic layout in the automation equipment industry in the fields of lithium battery, photovoltaic, aviation, and automobile manufacturing.
It is worth noting that the transaction took place in the context of the “six mergers and acquisitions” that greatly stimulated the enthusiasm for mergers and acquisitions in the market. On September 24, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the Opinions on Deepening the Market Reform of Mergers and Acquisitions of Listed Companies, aiming to support listed companies to carry out mergers and acquisitions around strategic emerging industries and future industries, including cross-industry mergers and acquisitions based on transformation and upgrading, and unprofitable asset acquisitions that help strengthen chains and improve key technology levels. We will support listed companies in transforming and upgrading to new quality productivity.
The powerful Fanuc robot
Fanuc robots. They got a lot of stuff.
Founded in 1956 in Japan, Fanuc is the world’s largest manufacturer of professional numerical control systems. In the field of industrial robots, Fanuc, ABB, Kuka and Yaskawa are known as the “four big families” and are long-term leaders in the global robot market.
Shanghai FANUC Robotics Co., a 50-50 joint venture between Japan’s Fanuc and Ningsheng Industries, focuses on industrial robots and factory automation solutions. Shanghai Fanuc International Trade Co., Ltd. is a joint venture of Shanghai Fanuc Robot Co., LTD., mainly engaged in the international trade and re-export trade of industrial robot products. In 1997, Shanghai Electric Group and Fanuc Group jointly invested and established Shanghai Fanuc Robot Co., LTD.
In 2024, China has become the world’s largest industrial robot market for 11 consecutive years, and Shanghai Fanuc Robot Company is a heavy participant that cannot be ignored. From 2020 to 2022, the company’s net profit is 330 million yuan, 789 million yuan and 1.332 billion yuan, respectively.
According to the announcement, as of June 30, 2024, the net assets corresponding to the 50% equity of Shanghai Fanuc Robot Company were 258,563,700 yuan, accounting for 83.7% of the net assets of Ningsheng Industry; From January to June 2024, the investment income of Ningsheng Industrial holding 50% equity of Shanghai Fanuc Robot Company was 178.4577 million yuan, accounting for 109.4% of the net profit of Ningsheng Industrial.
Shanghai Electric said in the announcement that the company and Shanghai Fanuc robot will form market collaboration and innovation collaboration.
Specifically, the latter’s deep cultivation in the automotive, electronics, photovoltaic and other industries is highly in line with the company’s development direction and target market. The company can also introduce customer resources in new energy, aerospace and other emerging fields into Fanuc robot’s customer network. Fanuc robot can also help the company develop new business in consumer electronics, 3C and other intelligent manufacturing fields. To realize the complementary and two-way empowerment of market resources of both sides. Not only that, the two sides will also collaborate on innovation and research and development of a new generation of intelligent robot products to build a differentiated competitive advantage of Shanghai Electric in the intelligent robot circuit.
Acquisition of industrial robot assets, release humanoid robot imagination
To a certain extent, Shanghai Electric is the “invisible giant” in the field of robotics. Shanghai Jiyou Machinery Co., LTD., a subsidiary of Shanghai Electric, produces advanced bearings for industrial robots and has strong core competitiveness in the field of industrial robots. In addition, Shanghai Electromechanical Co., Ltd. and Nabotsk joint venture agent sales and production of industrial robot core components – precision reducer. The acquisition of Shanghai Fanuc will undoubtedly further extend its industrial chain and improve the layout of Shanghai Electric in the field of industrial robots.
Imagination doesn’t stop there.
Shanghai Electric mentioned in the announcement that the company closely follows the development trend of robot product iteration and embodied intelligent technology innovation, will actively layout special robots and intelligent robot product development, focus on special application scenarios and flexible manufacturing scenarios, and realize the full combination of Fanuke robot’s motion control and robot integration application technology advantages in the traditional automation field. Jointly build the unique competitive advantages of both sides in the field of automation, and further focus on high-end equipment, energy, security, national defense and other advantageous application fields.
Compared with peers, Fanuc’s technical advantages in light load and high-precision application scenarios are particularly prominent. These are the typical features of humanoid robots.
The emergence and accelerated evolution of the Tesla Optimus humanoid robot has completely ignited the global humanoid robot market. Humanoid robots with smart “brains” and flexible “limbs” are becoming the new track for future industries. According to public data, the humanoid robot market is expected to reach $154 billion by 2035. As an intelligent robot that mimics human appearance, form and behavioral ability, humanoid robots can seamlessly use all human infrastructure and tools, integrate into human society, and realize natural language interaction and behavioral actions through AI. Compared with ordinary industrial robots and service robots, humanoid robots have great differences in structural design, hardware composition, control algorithms, core performance requirements and parts selection.
At the end of 2023, in order to promote the high-quality development of the humanoid robot industry, cultivate new quality productivity, and enable new industrialization at a high level, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the “Guidance on the Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots”. The “Guiding Opinions” propose that by 2025, the humanoid robot innovation system will be initially established. A number of key technologies such as “brain”, “cerebellum” and “limb” have made breakthroughs to ensure the safe and effective supply of core components, and the whole machine products have reached the international advanced level and achieved mass production. By 2027, the innovation capability of humanoid robot technology will be significantly improved, a safe and reliable industrial chain and supply chain system will be formed, an internationally competitive industrial ecology will be built, and the comprehensive strength will reach the world’s advanced level.
In the face of fierce market competition and rapid technological iteration in the field of humanoid robots, Shanghai Electric is constantly strengthening cooperation with the upstream and downstream in the field of domestic humanoid robots, and actively developing a new track for the core components of humanoid robots.
In July this year, the first full-size general humanoid robot open source public version of the machine “Qinglong” was officially released. “Qinglong” height of 185cm, weight 80kg, maximum joint peak torque 400 nm, computing power support 400Tops, the whole body up to 43 active degrees of freedom, representing the current humanoid robot in the top level of hardware design. Qinglong humanoid robot is independently developed by Humanoid Robot (Shanghai) Co., LTD., according to public information, the company’s shareholders include Shanghai Electric Group, Zhangjiang Group and so on.
Recently, Shanghai Electric’s Shanghai Tian ‘an Bearing Co., Ltd. delivered the humanoid robot “dexterous hand” reducer bearing sample to the customer. The “dexterous hand” is the key end-tool of humanoid robots, and its internal structure and joint design need to meet the stringent technical requirements of flexibility, high load capacity and corrosion resistance. It is reported that the product uses advanced manufacturing processes and materials, even when subjected to complex and changeable motion loads, it can always meet the lightweight and compact design requirements to ensure the flexibility and accuracy of robot action.
Not long ago, Shanghai Jiyou, a subsidiary of Shanghai Electric, signed a cooperation agreement with Nanjing University of Science and Technology on core components of humanoid robots. Shanghai Jiyou will rely on the strong scientific research strength of Nanjing University of Science and Technology in the field of rolling functional components, combined with its own rich experience in precision manufacturing and industrial applications, to jointly promote research and development and technological innovation.
