Big deal! Laying out new track, East China's big sale is 300 million

This is how big sales are done!

Overseas investment is a common method for big sellers to expand their product categories and improve their layout. For example, Anker Innovations has invested in smart home and other tracks. In the cross-border circle, there is another big seller that uses acquisitions as an important strategy to expand its overseas market. It is the East China tool big seller Giant Star Technology. Moreover, many of its acquisitions are in the hundreds of millions of yuan level. For example, a recent acquisition cost more than 300 million yuan.

In order to lay out a new track, Huadong Dama spent a lot of money

Not long ago, Giant Technology announced that it plans to purchase all the assets of TESA Group by paying cash, including 100% equity of TESA Precision Measurement Instruments Sarl (hereinafter referred to as "TESA Sarl") and its related Chinese, American and French company assets. The transaction price will not exceed 40 million euros (about 315 million yuan).

Like the brands it acquired previously, TESA has a long history. Founded in Switzerland in 1941 , TESA has a history of more than 80 years and has been focusing on the research and development of high-precision measuring tools. It is currently one of the top two manufacturers of μ-level high-precision measuring tools in the world. Its main products include: altimeters, inductive sensing microsystems, high-precision vernier calipers, etc.

TESA Group is well known by production workers and engineers around the world for its extremely high precision and reliability. It has established in-depth and extensive cooperation with major global industrial product distributors such as Hoffmann and HAHN+KOL in Germany, MSC and Grainger in the United States , and has built a complete technology and patent protection system.

With the advent of the digital age and Industry 4.0, TESA products have gradually embedded complete Bluetooth data transmission and connection systems and entered the era of smart tools .

At the same time, TESA Sarl's performance is also quite outstanding. It is reported that in 2022 and the first nine months of 2023, TESA Sarl's simulated consolidated operating income was 51.31 million euros ( about 404 million yuan ) and 37.243 million euros ( about 293 million yuan ) , and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was 5.55 million euros ( 43.69 million yuan ) and 4.001 million euros ( about 31.5 million yuan ) .

Giant Star Technology said that the purpose of this acquisition is to develop μ-level high-precision measuring tools necessary for robot parts processing , improve the company's existing product line, and expand the customers of industrial-grade products. In the future, the company will also use its own perfect R&D system in China and TESA's engineering team in Switzerland to jointly develop more high-precision measuring tools suitable for the TESA brand and Chinese customers, and will use the company's existing sales channels to bring TESA products to more countries and regions.

However, hundreds of millions of dollars is not a small amount of money. Where does the money for Giant Star Technology come from?

Giant Star Technology said that the transaction intends to use the funds raised from its previous issuance of GDRs. As the domestic capitalization track heats up, some sellers have begun to turn their attention to overseas, and Giant Star Technology is one of them. In November 2022, the GDR issued by Giant Star Technology was listed on the Swiss Exchange, raising a net amount of US$154 million (about RMB 1.103 billion).

In addition, Giant Star Technology's own business also has good returns. In the first three quarters of 2023, Giant Star Technology's net profit and non-net profit were 1.506 billion yuan and 1.547 billion yuan respectively.

Focus on "buying, buying, buying", and spend billions

TESA is not the first overseas acquisition of Giant Star Technology. As early as 2010, it acquired the hand tool-related business assets of four companies including Goldblatt Tool company for US$1.3 million. Goldblatt is a century-old brand in the field of construction hand tools in the United States, and its products have always been known for their excellent quality.

Since then, it has made frequent moves, acquiring many brands including American nail gun giant Arrow, Swiss professional storage equipment Lista, North America's largest supplier of replaceable hardware for doors and windows Prime-Line, and German industrial-grade nail gun brand BeA.

E-En Network has sorted out its acquisitions over the years according to time:

2015: Acquired 65% of Huada Kejie's equity for RMB 200 million. The company is a global leader in laser measurement tools and intelligent equipment for measurement and control systems, and provides products for internationally renowned laser measurement tools such as Leica.

2016: Two acquisitions took place. The first was the acquisition of 100% equity of PT Laser for 22.686 million euros. The company is the world's most professional and complete R&D and manufacturing company, and its parent company, Swiss Leica, is the world's leading provider of laser measurement and mapping solutions. The second was the acquisition of the American PONY and JORGENSEN fixture brands with a history of more than 100 years for 3.575 million US dollars.

2017: Acquired the century-old American brand ARROW for RMB 860 million. Its manual and electric products have a large share in large supermarket chains and industrial fields, and are the leader in the sub-sector.

2018: Acquired LISTA, a famous Swiss brand of industrial storage cabinets, for CHF 184.5 million. Its products include spare parts cabinets, professional tool cabinets, industrial storage equipment, etc.

2019: Acquired Prime-Line for $25 million. The company is recognized as the largest supplier of replacement hardware for windows and doors in North America.

2021: Two investments also took place this year. First, the acquisition of 100% equity of Geelong Holdings Limited, a US storage cabinet company, for US$128.24 million. Second, the acquisition of BeA, a well-known brand of pneumatic fastening products in Europe, and related assets for EUR 27.9 million. BeA is the No. 1 brand of pneumatic fastening products in Europe, mainly producing nail guns and consumables, with a market share of about 22% in the European market. JFB AG, the owner of the BeA brand, is a well-known European brand and manufacturer founded in 1910.

2022: Acquire 70% equity of Allun Ruiqi Cleaning Equipment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. for RMB 280 million. Allun Cleaning is currently the world's leading R&D and manufacturing company of high pressure washers, and has maintained a steady growth of more than 30% in revenue per year over the past five years.

Obviously, expanding overseas markets by acquiring overseas brands has become an important strategy for Giant Star Technology. Relying on overseas mergers and acquisitions, Giant Star Technology has now become the largest hand tool company in Asia and the third largest in the world.

With 15 core brands, Giant Star Technology is going crazy in the e-commerce field

According to the company's announcement, in 2020, Giant Technology has become the number one domestic export seller in terms of hand tool sales on Amazon.

As we all know, labor costs in Europe and the United States are high, and it is common for consumers to do it themselves and DIY, so hand tools have always been a must-have item for families. Among these consumer groups, Giant Star Technology's products account for a large proportion.

At present, in addition to its original main business of hand tools, Giant Star Technology has gradually expanded its products to include laser measuring tools, industrial storage cabinets, power tools and other categories. In addition, in 2022, it will also expand its business scope to include photovoltaics, energy storage, household goods and other categories.

In 2015, Giant Star Technology started its cross-border e-commerce journey through Amazon's "Global Store". It has been 8 years since then. In addition to Amazon, its online tentacles now extend to multiple third-party e-commerce platforms such as EBAY and AliExpress.

Giant Star Technology has successfully established 15 core brands including WORKPRO, PONY JORGENSE, DURATECH, SWISSTECH, etc., becoming a leading vertical tool seller in the overseas market. It is reported that as early as 2019, Giant Star Technology achieved sales revenue of more than 50 million US dollars through e-commerce channels.

Cross-border e-commerce direct sales has now become Giant Star Technology's most important sales channel besides traditional large-scale chain supermarkets. It has previously set a goal of increasing its cross-border e-commerce business by nearly 50% by 2023.

Li Feng, senior vice president of Hangzhou Giant Star Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Giant Star Technology), said that compared with other cross-border e-commerce companies, Giant Star Technology has advantages in terms of time, location and people, such as factories, R&D teams, overseas warehouses and independent operations.

Giant Star Technology