The rapid and violent move by Midea to acquire an overseas robot company seems to be the quickest way to deal with the rising labor costs in the Pearl River Delta and its future. But can strong technology-oriented companies integrate into this labor-intensive enterprise in the United States? High acquisition prices will also face the test of input-output ratio. 
After several twists and turns to win KUKA, the first time in the United States and the German's most famous robot manufacturer appeared in the public vision a few days ago, with one of the same appearance, as well as the Israeli robot has just reached a strategic cooperation deal The company is highly innovative.
The United States continues to attack the city in the international community, the strategic intentions are very clear: According to Gu Yanmin, vice president of Midea Group, Midea is no longer satisfied with the small home appliances company that the outside world believes, but to become a global leading consumer appliance. HVAC, robotics and industrial automation systems technology group."
Midea believes that high-cost acquisitions of KUKA and KoChuang are one of the indicators for its entry into the field of automatic optimization of robots and industries. Robots are selected. First, they seek new growth points for their businesses. Second, they seek to diversify their development. The group's business is from B2C. Extends to B2B.
Although Fang Hongbo, chairman of Midea Group, appears to be quite upstarted several times, the next issue that the United States will face is that the strong technology-oriented companies like Kuka need to integrate into the inherently labor-intensive enterprises of the United States. At the same time, high acquisition prices will also face the test of input-output ratio.
"For the price of 30 billion yuan, each company has a different measurement method," Gu Yanmin said, the outside world can not directly assess whether the price is high or low.
After the acquisition is completed, the U.S. business will be re-divided. Newly established robotics business on the basis of inherent home appliances and air-conditioning business
In the field of robotics and automation, it will be dominated by KUKA, which is the core of the industrial upgrading that the United States believes. In the field of commercial services, Midea uses the companies of Ander Logistics, warehousing intelligence, and medical service intelligence products to support it; in the area of ​​home service robots, there are several brands, namely, Midea, Kuka, Toshiba, and Kochi. Joint development.
Midea's technological integration for these multinational companies is conceived as follows: KUKA as the main body expands in robotics production, industrial automation solutions, system integration, and smart logistics. The Israeli company's high level of innovation will enrich the technical reserves and product reserves of the United States in the field of motion control and servo motors.
The company's robots, automated production, automated logistics, and industrial services are all upgraded. Production lines, logistics, and services can all be integrated to form a complete intelligent manufacturing solution and exported to B-end users.
According to the data provided by Midea, the current market maintenance rate of the United States has decreased by 30% and the order delivery cycle has been shortened by 50%. Mei Shao Group, general manager of the robotics industry project, Shao Shaoqiang, once mentioned in last year: Midea currently uses 800 robots. In the next two years, 500 new robots are expected to be put into use every year. After two years, the number of robots will be 1800.
It is not yet known about the detailed progress and planning of the US robot business. However, one person from the Kuka side told the 36-year-old that if the United States needs to use KUKA products in large quantities on the production line, it will take at least five years.
The desire for the transformation of the United States stems from its single appliance business model. To a certain extent, in this competitive industry, the dividend period has begun to fade away.
Taking air conditioners as an example, sales of the entire air conditioner market in China fell by 15% in the first half of 2016. Midea's sales of air-conditioner-related business exceeded the overall decline in the market and decreased by more than 20% year-on-year. Due to sluggish air-conditioning business, domestic sales also decreased by 18.6%.
The increase in labor costs is also one of the reasons. According to public statistics, the United States has the largest group of 200,000 people. Now it is probably less than 110,000. Fang Hongbo once mentioned that the human cost of the Pearl River Delta continues to rise, and the machine substitution wave has hit.
In the first half of 2015, Midea Group’s employee compensation and benefits expenses amounted to 6.1 billion yuan. In the same period, the company’s net profit was 8.9 billion yuan. The input of human capital has exceeded 2/3 of the net profit, which is after the employee’s substantial reduction of nearly half. Labor costs.
Wang Jianchun, the boss’s electrical operation director, told the 36-year-old reporter that at present, in the field of home appliances, Midea’s inherent air-conditioning, small home appliances and other profits are not as good as before, and now only kitchen appliances are still in a stage of insufficient competition.
Li Qiang, general manager of Midea Smart Home Technology Co., Ltd., also acknowledged that Midea's transformation of robots and smart homes is partly due to its ability to increase profitability.
But in the upstream of the home appliance manufacturing industry chain, it is almost a deserted area. The attraction of Kuka to the United States is that this company is also regarded as a German “national treasure†company and has accumulated considerable experience in auto manufacturing and other aspects. Its advanced robot body technology has made it unmatched by many Chinese manufacturers.
Founded in 1996, KUKA's customers are used by almost all automotive manufacturers, and it is also a major supplier of major auto parts and integrated markets in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. Kuka’s 2016 annual report shows that KUKA’s sales revenue was 2.9 billion Euro last year, and the amount of orders received increased by 20.6% year-on-year, exceeding the 3 billion Euro mark.
A Shenzhen robotics source told a 36-something reporter that foreign robot giants have had nearly 100 years of trial and error and precipitation. This is not what Chinese companies can overtake in a short period of time. Taking robots as an example, its R&D and production have been very complicated, but more importantly, software writers also need to have a full understanding of the processes in the application field, and this depends on years of accumulated experience.
Gu Yanmin also emphasized that KUKA’s talent is hard to find in China and that the German apprentice-type talent training mechanism is an advanced system.
For Kouka, if there is an influx of money from a Chinese company, there is another consideration. According to Kouka CEOTill Reuter, the United States not only brought the temptation of funds, but also was an important bargaining chip for Kuka to enter the Chinese market. According to his plan, before 2020, KUKA will achieve sales of one billion euros in the Chinese market and become the number one robot manufacturer in China.
IFR (International Federation of Robotics) data said that in 2015 China had 36 robots per 10,000 workers. By 2020, this figure will rise to 150, which will more than quadruple, and the global automated density ranking will also increase from 28. To the top ten in the world.
However, the acquisition of the United States is not always smooth, including domestic and foreign pressures have surged during this period. Not long ago, the US purchase of KUKA at a high price suffered great irony from Gree Electric's Dong Mingzhu, and the key point of the controversy lies in the autonomy of the technology. Some voices mentioned that relatively brutal acquisition mode can not Let the company get the expected growth.
Judging from the progress of the past few years, Midea's preference for acquisitions and cooperation models is indeed stronger than that of competitors at the same level:
In August 2015, Midea and Yaskawa Electric (China) Co., Ltd. established two robotic joint ventures;
In March 2016, Midea took a 17.8% stake in Anhui Eft Smart Equipment Co., Ltd.;
In May 2016, Midea announced a high-profile announcement of a full cash offer for the acquisition of kuka, at a premium of more than 30%;
In February 2017, Midea acquired more than 50% of its shares in Servotronix.
In contrast, Gree Electric and the United States are taking a clear line. Since 2013, Gree has begun to develop its own intelligent equipment, and these products have also begun to export scale, the data show that by the end of 2016, Gree's export equipment output value of more than 1 billion yuan. Dong Mingzhu said that rather slow, but also to achieve independent innovation, we must take the path of independent creation.
However, in the A-share market, the U.S. play seems to be more tempting for investors. As of the closing of the A-share market on March 9, 2017, the market value of Midea Group has reached RMB 202.6 billion, which is also more than RMB 1708 billion of Gree Electric Appliances.
Wang Jianchun, the boss’s electrical operation director, told the 36-year-old that the large-scale acquisition can bring imagination to investors to some extent. As a listed company, this can be a sensible approach.
For Midea, it is no stranger to expand the product line through mergers and acquisitions. From Galanz to microwave ovens, to fans, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, etc., Midea is entering these fields as quickly as possible and giving competition. The opponent brings enough power. However, for this time the technology that enters the technology threshold is high, and the difference with the previous natural mode of the United States is relatively large, the future of the beautiful robot needs time for verification.
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