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Brother has announced its intention to purchase the assets of Mutoh Holdings, including its entire wide-format print press lineup
Japanese hardware manufacturer, Brother Industries, has announced its ambitions to acquire the outstanding shares of Mutoh Holdings, including the company’s wide-format printer business, in order to support its strategic growth plans.
Under the offer, Brother will launch an acquisition initiative for all outstanding assets of Mutoh, excluding treasury shares, at an offer price of ¥7,626 (£35.79) per share, with the total offer valued at ¥35bn (£160m). As part of this deal, MUTOH would be converted into a wholly owned subsidiary of Brother.
A number of released documents from Brother outline the commencement of the tender offer, which outlines its aims to secure a stronger product lineup and market position within the printing sector.
According to the documents, Brother will use its own funds for the acquisition, with one of the core justifications of the purchase being to benefit from economies of scale through joint procurement and standardisation of manufacturing.
A tender offer period of 30 business days has been set, with the intention of giving Mutoh shareholders time to consider their options.
MUTOH’s board of directors has already expressed its support of the offer and recommended the company’s shareholders to tender their shares, noting that the companies’ combined operations could expand market reach and strengthen competitiveness.
Mutoh manufactures a wide range of UV, UV-LED, dye-sublimation, and textile solutions for the print and signage markets, with its latest releases including the 64-inch Mutoh XpertJet 1641SR Pro II wide-format press and the XpertJet 1682UR UV LED roll-to-roll printer. Data Direct Thames Valley was appointed as an official UK distributor of Mutoh solutions at the tail-end of last year.
Brother’s current industrial print lineup focuses on industrial label printing, with solutions including its Brother Titan press series, alongside a variety of professional document management and portable print solutions.
Brother already owns Domino Printing Sciences, which it purchased in 2015 for an estimated £1.03bn to strengthen its global footprint in industrial coding, marking, and digital label printing.
