The Jenoptik Group has bought 92 per cent of Vysionics, a UK supplier of road safety and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology, for an undisclosed sum.
Vysionics, which is based in Frimley, Surrey, currently has a workforce of 55 employees and will generate revenue of around €20 million for 2014.
Jenoptik’s president and CEO, Michael Mertin, said: ‘This acquisition outside the Euro-zone is an important step in our growth process and in our medium- and long-term planning. As one of the leading companies for traffic law enforcement, not only do we gain access to the important UK growth market by acquiring Vysionics, but we also complement our innovative product portfolio; the latest technologies of ANPR and ‘section control’ are important future-oriented solutions to improve traffic safety on roads worldwide.’
Jenoptik CFO, Rüdiger Andreas Günther, added: ‘The investment was made possible because of our good financial situation. In the interest of our shareholders, it will provide important momentum for additional profitable growth in our international business.’
The Jenoptik Group generated revenue totalling €420.1 million in the first nine months of 2014, slightly down on the prior year of €432.5 million. The company also recently revised its 2014 revenue and earnings guidance for 2014, due to weak demand from the machine construction, semiconductor equipment and automotive industries, combined with export restrictions due to the crisis in Russia and Ukraine. Order intakes, however, were up 7.6 per cent up on the prior year in the first nine months of 2014.
Jenoptik’s Traffic Solutions division manufactures components and systems for road traffic safety. Its section control technology is already being used successfully in Austria, Switzerland and Kuwait. In the UK and elsewhere, ANPR is a major component of road traffic safety systems and general safety policy. According to industry estimates, the worldwide market for ANPR is set to rise by 14 per cent per year up until 2018.
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