Atlas Copco to Acquire Isra Vision for $1.19 Billion

Atlas Copco announced its takeover cash bid for Isra Vision, valuing the German machine vision company at 1.09 billion euros ($1.19 billion), including debt. The takeover will help grow Atlas Copco’s business in automated production and quality control.

Atlas Copco, which manufactures compressors, vacuum pumps, and industrial tools, will pay 50 euros per Isra Vision share, a premium of 43% to Isra Vision’s closing price on February 7.

The German company’s management and supervisory board voiced full support to Atlas Copco’s bid, and the Swedish company has acquired 35% of the shares via irrevocable commitments and a purchase agreement.

Isra Vision is a company that manufactures technology for surface inspection and 3D vision for robot guidance, quality inspection, and metrology. According to its 2018/19 earnings report, the company made an operating profit of nearly 34 million euros on sales of 154 million.

“Surface inspection and 3D machine vision are part of the long-term strategy of Atlas Copco,” said Henrik Elmin, President of the Industrial Technique business area at Atlas Copco. “Through this partnership, we will be even better able to support our customers in various segments in their shift to digital production.”

Shares of Atlas Copco’s, which is Sweden’s largest company by market cap, climbed 0.6% by 0914 GMT, while shares of Isra Vision advanced 44.5%.

The Swedish industrial giant, which has acquired several companies that specialize in areas such as adhesives bonding – often used in the car industry – said Isra Vision would become a separate unit under the company’s Industrial Technique business sector.

“In the future Atlas Copco’s current assembly solutions will need to be combined with a machine vision solution to position the robot or inspect the quality of the process result,” the company said.

They added that providing both technologies and machine vision solutions for the same application would reinforce its relationships with clients.

The Stockholm-based Atlas Copco has about 39,000 employees, and runs businesses in over 180 countries. The company’s revenues in 2019 were €10bn.