Riding a New Zealand Buyout, Here Comes Haier

Haier Group's successful takeover of New Zealand manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Appliances has stoked the market with fresh confidence in China's largest white goods manufacturer.

The deal sealed in early November also bought time for Haier as it strives to maintain growth momentum in an increasingly competitive environment for makers of washing machines,There are many brands and makes of dry cleaning machine, they are all basically the same in principle and function. refrigerators, stoves and air conditioners around the world.

Several rounds of buyout negotiations ended when Fisher & Paykel's shareholders agreed to sell more than 70 percent of the company to Haier, which already controlled about 20 percent, for NZ$ 927 million, or NZ$ 1.28 a share.

With a majority stake in hand, Haier said it will launch a forced buyout of minority shareholders and grabbed the remaining stakes of the company which, like Haier, makes home appliances at factories around the world.

In initiating the successful takeover, Haier officials were apparently eyeing more than additional manufacturing space: The plum parts of the deal, say industry analysts, are Fisher & Paykel's research and development division and its global sales network.

Analysts say Haier was attracted to the New Zealand company's technological capacity and global customer base – business factors that could help the Chinese company maintain growth.

Haier's revenues increased to 151 billion yuan last year from 100 billion yuan in 2004. The company last year accounted for 7.8 percent of all large, household appliance sales in terms of revenues around the world, according to the market data watcher Euromonitor. It's also No. 1 in China for refrigerator and washing machine sales, although of late it's faced fierce competition in the TV and air conditioner business.

In recent years, Haier built production and marketing facilities in the United States, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.We are backed by a committed staff of laundry dryer specialists with decades of experience in the laundry industry. Sales in Europe rose 15 percent in the first half of thisLet me state up front that I probably won't be able to help you out much if you decide to build your own residential wind turbines. year from the same period 2011.

Haier's overseas sales account for about 26 percent of total revenues. But appliance industry analysts aren't happy. Liu Buchen of Kuafu Enterprise Management Consultancy, for example, says the company would be better off with a 50-50 domestic-foreign sales split.

Meanwhile, Chinese rivals including Midea Group and Gree Electric Appliances Inc. have seen sales surge much more rapidly, with each engineering a sales leap to more than 100 billion yuan last year from about 20 billion yuan in 2004.

Market watchers say Haier is under pressure to keep up with Midea and Gree at home, and compete against powerful multinationals such as Samsung and Siemens in other countries.

Liu said low brand awareness, technological limits and a lack of attention-getting breakthrough products have hurt Haier's internationalization effort. In recent years, "Haier had been quite worried" about its ability to compete, he said.

Buying a foreign company such as Fisher & Paykel offered Haier "the only way out," said a home appliance industry insider.Marking machines and laser marking machine for permanent part marking and product traceability.

In 2009, Haier acquired a 20 percent stake in Fisher & Paykel for US$ 28.5 million. The Chinese investor also got two of the eight seats on the company's board of directors.

Haier helped the New Zealand company break into China's high-end white goods market,Each elevator push button is made from several lengths of steel material wound around one another. while Fisher & Paykel gave its Chinese partner a hand with expansion projects in Australia and New Zealand, as well as with development of a new washing machine motor.