(AOF) – Following a press article published in Agefi on December 23, Groupe Gorgé confirms having submitted a non-binding indicative offer for the takeover of the company iXblue, whose activities in maritime, defense and hydrography and the drones are complementary to those of its subsidiary ECA Group, a specialist in the field of autonomous robotics.
The two companies have been working together for several years, notably on the Belgo-Neerlandais program. “A merger would be likely to generate very significant synergies”, explains Groupe Gorgé, which specifies that it would not have recourse to a capital increase to carry out this operation.
The acquisition would be carried out by a newly created holding company, which would also own ECA after the contribution of the Gorge Group and which would have funds provided by an investor and by debt.
As the corporate values of ECA and iXblue retained in this project are comparable, Groupe Gorgé would have a significant majority alongside this financial investor and management.
Groupe Gorgé will keep the market informed only in the event of significant progress on this project, while respecting the confidentiality necessary for the process of this type of project.
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Automotive / OEMs: A slow recovery
After a bad year 2020, some actors
expect a very gradual return to the level of activity preceding the crisis: not before 2024-2025.
The global pandemic weighed heavily on the accounts of Valeo, Faurecia and Plastic Omnium.
2020, a bad year for French equipment manufacturers.
They all ended 2020 posting losses, despite recovering in the second half of the year. Faurecia recorded 379million euros in losses last year. Its sales plummeted by 35.4% in the first half of the year, following the shutdown of automobile production in China, then in Europe and the United States. Its turnover fell by nearly 20% to 14.6 billion euros over the year as a whole and its operating margin fell from 7.2% to 2.8%.
Its competitor, Plastic Omnium, posted sales down 16.7% in 2020, to 7.7 billion euros. Personnel and general expenses were reduced by 240million euros and investments by 27%. Including 250million asset write-downs, its net loss reached 251million in 2020.
Valeo, for its part, suffered a fall in its turnover of 16%, to 16.4 billion euros, and a net loss slightly above one billion euros.
Hydrogen, a new eldorado for equipment manufacturers
The manufacture of green hydrogen is an alternative to electric batteries. Bosch, one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers, will invest one billion euros by 2024 in fuel cells, which transform hydrogen into electricity. The German group predicts that the green hydrogen market will represent in Europe nearly 40 billion euros by 2030, with annual growth rates of 65%. He estimates that the market for mobile fuel cell components for vehicles will be worth around 18 billion euros by the end of the decade.
French automotive suppliers are also seeking to capture part of this market. Michelin and Faurecia are banking on their subsidiary Symbio, which produces fuel cells. Plastic Omnium wants to become a world leader in hydrogen by 2030 and achieve 3 billion euros in sales by that date.
Professional electronics: market under tension
According to the WSTS (World Semiconductor Trade Statistics), the global semiconductor market is even expected to grow 8.4% in 2021 for a market under extreme stress.
Excellent outlook
While demand is growing faster than global growth, supply is very limited. Three players dominate the sector (the Taiwanese TSMC, the American Intel and the Korean Samsung) whereas they were more than twenty in 2002. Analysts predict that they will be down to two from 2023. The United States represent only 12% of world production according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. As for Europe, it weighs only 7%. It aims to produce 20% of semiconductors in the world by 2030. Sixteen countries, including France and Germany, will unite to develop production capacities.
TSMC (the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is very well positioned to take advantage of the arrival of 5G and connected objects. “Founder”, it does not sell any chip under its brand, but produces the components on behalf of other players.