Successfully acquired semiconductor equipment manufacturer MueTec, Tianzhun Technology boosts the development of the semiconductor industry

Tianzhun Technology, a listed company on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, announced on May 17 that the company has officially completed the acquisition of 100% of the shares of German semiconductor equipment manufacturer MueTec on May 14. This is the first cross-border acquisition on the Science and Technology Innovation Board that lasted for nearly a year. Successfully ended.

MueTec is a German semiconductor equipment company that mainly provides high-precision optical inspection and measurement equipment for wafer products. The company was founded in 1991, and within 30 years has landed a relatively complete semiconductor front-end inspection and measurement product line, and has entered Europe, America, Asia, and many markets including China Taiwan. According to the announcement, the total price of the acquisition is 18.18 million euros (approximately 140 million yuan), plus 2 million euros of debt of the target company, Tianzhun Technology paid a total of 20.8 million euros (approximately equivalent to 160 million yuan).

As the first batch of sci-tech innovation board companies approved for listing, Tianzhun Technology started with industrial vision technology. Starting from the initial visual measurement equipment, it has successively developed visual inspection, process equipment, and solutions for downstream industries such as consumer electronics, new energy, and PCB. . In 2020, the company achieved an operating income of 960 million yuan, an increase of 78.19% year-on-year.

Mergers and acquisitions are not uncommon in the semiconductor industry with high-tech barriers. Semiconductor equipment giants such as Applied Materials and Ketian Semiconductor have consolidated their respective industry positions through continuous mergers and acquisitions. The acquisition of MueTec not only allowed Tianzhun Technology to obtain tickets to the semiconductor equipment industry but also created a new growth point for its performance.

At the same time, under the big wave of industrial intelligence, Tianzhun Technology has recently announced that the company has entered the strategic 3.0 stage, opening a new direction for industrial intelligence. Next, the company will provide intelligent solutions including industrial Internet of Things, digital factories, etc., for industrial scenarios such as smart factories and smart networks, and promote the intelligent transformation of customers' entire production and work processes.

According to Dr. Xu Yihua, the founder and chairman of Tianzhun Technology, Tianzhuns business development cannot be separated from the continuous improvement of core technology. The layout of semiconductor equipment this time will significantly raise the companys overall technical level, and the strategic upgrade is in compliance with the industry. At the same time as the big trend, it also means a broad market space and opportunities for enterprises to grow by leaps and bounds.

Enter the field of semiconductor equipment, dig deep into the technological moat

As the jewel in the crown of the manufacturing industry, the semiconductor industry has extremely complicated manufacturing procedures and ultra-high technological standards. The completion of each process is inseparable from the corresponding semiconductor equipment. Therefore, the localization of the equipment bears the brunt of the localization of the semiconductor industry. However, as the world's largest semiconductor equipment market, the current localization rate of semiconductor equipment in the mainland market is less than 10%.

According to the SEMI report, global semiconductor equipment sales in 2020 will reach 71.2 billion U.S. dollars, of which mainland China has become the world's largest semiconductor equipment market for the first time, with sales reaching 18.72 billion U.S. dollars. According to the statistical results of the China Electronics Professional Equipment Industry Association, the domestic sales revenue of semiconductor equipment in 2020 is about 21.3 billion yuan, which also includes about 10 billion solar cells and LED equipment. Under the current situation that domestic semiconductor equipment has a market share of less than 10%, the localization of semiconductor equipment is in urgent need of a breakthrough.

Xu Yihua, the chairman of Tianzhun Technology, once discussed in detail the current situation of the domestic semiconductor equipment industry with industry experts. The technical barrier of equipment production is the first high wall that is difficult to overcome. At the same time, the strong adhesion of downstream customers to equipment suppliers is new equipment. A natural barrier for manufacturers to enter the market. In addition, as a high-precision manufacturing industry, the production of equipment has strict requirements on the quality of parts and components, and the current domestic supply chain is not complete. Therefore, if you want to quickly enter the field of domestic semiconductor equipment production, overseas mergers and acquisitions have become an option.

In the global semiconductor equipment market monopolized by giants, "small and beautiful" has become the standard for Tianzhun to choose the target of acquisition. It is understood that the 30-year-old founding team of MueTec is from the old German company Leica, and the team is committed to developing high-precision size and defect detection equipment. The company has established a mature product line in the field of wafer optical inspection and has been recognized by customers worldwide. On the other hand, the company has been rooted in the European market for a long time, and its growth has reached a bottleneck. With the financial investor as the major shareholder, the follow-up investment is weak. After the acquisition, Tianzhun will provide financial support for MueTec to achieve continuous product upgrades. At the same time, many of MueTec's product lines have also filled the gaps in the domestic market, and Tianzhun will help it open up the Chinese market in the future.

Tianzhun also established its own semiconductor equipment R&D team before the acquisition. The team will exchange talents and collaborate with MueTec for research and development.

From point to aspect, start a new stage of industrial intelligence strategy

Tianzhun stated in the MueTec acquisition announcement that the target company will not make a significant positive contribution to the company's performance in the short term. Chairman Xu Yihua also said that in Tianzhuns business system, semiconductor equipment will not be the highest-income segment, but it will represent Tianzhuns technological advancement. And this technological level will also raise the level of the company as a whole, helping other business units to be more competitive.

With industrial vision technology as the core, continuous expansion of business lines is an important strategic direction for the development of Tianzhun Technology. Starting from the initial vision measurement equipment, Tianzhun has gradually expanded its business to provide inspection and process solutions for various fields. In the course of more than ten years of development, Tianzhun has realized the blossoming of business lines based on core industrial vision technology. Chairman Xu Yihua introduced that Tianzhuns business lines are all related expansions, that is, based on the core technology platform and management platform, developed in response to the needs of customers in various industries, "all are the fruits of the same tree."

The upgrade of this strategy 3.0 is also a manifestation of this strategy. Under the new industry demand and competitive situation, under the guidance of the new strategy of "Industrial Vision I Industrial Intelligence", Tian Zhuo will provide intelligent production lines, digital factories, industrial Internet of Things, and vehicle roads for industrial scenarios such as smart factories and smart networks. Intelligent solutions such as collaboration, unmanned vehicles, and general AI computing units promote the improvement of productivity and social efficiency.

The smart factory solution of Tianzhun Technology is the intelligent integration of industrial Internet of Things, industrial data platform, robot control technology, intelligent three-dimensional warehouse, and other technologies with modern industrial production management concepts. It can be used for intelligent products such as consumer electronics and automobile manufacturing. High industry. At present, the company has launched smart warehousing products for enterprise warehousing scenarios, and they have been applied in the fields of electronic smart manufacturing, automobiles, and photovoltaics. Through intelligent and automated inbound and outbound transportation, management analysis, and statistics, the scientific planning and intelligent operation of the internal material flow of the enterprise can be realized, which can reduce operating costs and improve production efficiency and capital use efficiency. In addition, Tianzhun can also directly provide intelligent and customized assembly automation solutions for downstream customers, which can complete the fully automated assembly and testing of industrial products.

In intelligent production, the analysis and utilization of data are indispensable. Tianzhun Technology uses big data analysis technology, based on MES manufacturing execution system, WMS intelligent warehouse management system and WCS intelligent scheduling system, and other application systems to help customers realize the visualization of the production process. Under Tianzhuns industrial data platform, customers can obtain multiple functions such as equipment management and configuration, intelligent production, large-screen monitoring, and comprehensive management and control of the management center, which is conducive to optimizing the entire production and management process, and further reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Tianzhun Technology has cooperated with Cainiao Network as early as 2018 when it mainly developed the body of the unmanned delivery vehicle. Since then, Tianzhun has also continued to explore technologies and applications related to unmanned vehicles, including unmanned driving and vehicle-road collaboration. Under the new strategy of industrial intelligence, Tianzhun also emphasized its layout in the field of intelligent network connection, that is, the integration of Tianzhuns AI edge computing and perception technology in the field of intelligent networked vehicles and vehicle-road collaboration, including intelligent Connected cars provide intelligent controllers, multi-sensor fusion sensing systems and roadside sensing information. The intelligent layout is inseparable from the support of AI technology. The company has also begun to build an AI computing platform to provide basic software and hardware platforms and perceptual computing power for AI applications, serving smart transportation, mobile robots, power detection, new retail, and another general In the industrial field, improve the digital and intelligent level of the industry.

Since its establishment, Tianzhun Technology has served 4000+ mid-to-high-end customers around the world and has formed an industry reputation in consumer electronics, new energy, PCB, and other fields. In the future, Tianzhun will continue to cooperate with customers in-depth and explore forward-looking and highly applicable solutions based on actual application scenarios. The company will also build a complete talent system around the two major technical systems of artificial intelligence and precision optoelectronics, and support the development of various business lines. Standing at the current new historical node, Tianzhun Technology will continue to contribute to the development of industrial intelligence with the support of the industry's application capabilities and technical capabilities.