SPX Corporation, a US-based industrial conglomerate, seeks acquisition targets in China to accelerate growth in flow technology, thermal equipment and particularly in the automotive test and measurement tools sector, the company said in Shanghai yesterday.
The right target should help the company, which also makes industrial pumps and ventilation systems, to grow beyond its past three years' average sales growth of 35 percent in China, said Christopher Kearney, its chairman and chief executive officer.
"Acquisition is high on our list of priorities and we have found a number of interesting opportunities," said Kearney, who declined be more specific on "things that are in progress."
The criteria is the acquired companies' earnings should be positive in the first year and that SPX should be able to get back their capital invested in the acquisition within two to three years.
China ranks as the third largest market after the United States and Europe for SPX. But the country has been its fastest growing market as sales in China soared from US$40 million in 2002 to last year's US$380 million, accounting for nine percent of its global revenue.
The company has invested US$120 million in China in the past five years setting up 12 plants and benefited from the nation's rapid growth in energy infrastructure. It employs 3,000 people in China, 20 percent of its global workforce.
In August, SPX was awarded a contract from Westinghouse Electric to design and engineer valves for new nuclear power plants in eastern China that will begin construction in 2009. The company has also reached a pact with China's State Power Technology Corporation to provide training and technical expertise for these plants.