USI Intends to Acquire Asteelflash, Europe's Second-Largest EMS Company, to Accelerate Its Global Expansion

SHANGHAI and PARIS, Dec. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Scientific Industrial (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "USI") (SSE: 601231), a leading electronics designer and manufacturer, formally announced its intention to enter into the Equity Acquisition Agreement with the shareholders of Asteelflash, the second largest EMS company in Europe. It intends to acquire 100% equity of Asteelflash for 450 million US dollars, of which 89.6% is paid in cash, 10.4% is paid by issuing shares of USI to privately owned company of Asteelflash's founder (i.e. equity swap). The transaction is subject to approval by the relevant competent authorities.

Asteelflash, a privately owned company, will become an important subsidiary of USI after the closing of the transaction, with existing operation and management team left unchanged. Meanwhile, leveraging the global scale of operation and manufacturing, branding and service capabilities of USI, Asteelflash aims to capture more opportunities to increase large orders of major clients, and accelerate its business growth and expansion. Asteelflash and USI will create value through their complementary geographical footprint, target end market segments, customers, business models and technological capabilities.

In the context of heightened trade frictions on global markets, USI's move to acquire Asteelflash will enable it to provide a more diverse range of production bases to its clients, including cost competitive ones in North Africa (Tunisia), Eastern Europe (the Czech Republic and Poland) and North America (Mexico), and those in Europe (France, Germany and the UK) and North America (Silicon Valley, USA) allowing efficient communication and geographical facilitation with customers sharing the same language, culture, and time zones as well as original production and supply systems based in Asia, such as mainland China and Taiwan.

With revenues of around US$ 1 billion, Asteelflash serves more than 200 clients, and is dedicated to meeting their requirements for small batch and diversification. Following the acquisition, it will help to optimize USI's current customer base and further balance client distribution and revenue composition. In the future, USI and Asteelflash are expected to meet the needs of a much wider range of clients, taking into account different requirements of customers at different stages of product development, such as quick-turn manufacturing and design feedbacks in the early stage of product development for small volume, or rigid requirements for mature products at the mass production stage in terms of production stability and lead time.