KraussMaffei eyes growth in China as shares begin selling in Shanghai

German machinery company KraussMaffei Group has begun trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, although it retains its headquarters in Germany.

In a Jan. 15 statement, the Munich-headquartered company said the listing took place through the transfer of ChemChina's stake in KraussMaffei to ChemChina's majority owned subsidiary THY (Qingdao Tianhua Institute of Chemistry Engineering).

Because THY is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the process was not a conventional initial public offering and was accomplished through a so-called "asset injection," a company spokesman said.

As part of the deal, the newly-expanded THY has taken over ChemChina's production site in Sanming, China, where it will produce new KraussMaffei-branded injection molding machine models for the Chinese market. The combined business will operate under the KraussMaffei brand, with the German company contributing more than 80 percent of the company's 1.5 billion $1.7 billion in annual revenue.With the move, KraussMaffei intends to "significantly expand" its presence in China and will take on the operational responsibility for the integrated production site in Sanming. THY lalso will continue its existing business as a design institute and specialty engineering company for components required in chemical plant construction.

With growing demand for high-quality products, KraussMaffei expects annual sales growth of more than 20 percent in China "in the coming years," the German supplier said in its statement.

KraussMaffei CEO Frank Stieler and Chief Financial Officer Harald Nippel will lead the new integrated mechanical engineering company.

"We now have the opportunity to drive our growth even faster and better. The listing provides us with access to the Chinese capital market," Stieler said in the company release. The move, he noted, will "significantly strengthen" KraussMaffei both in China and globally.

KraussMaffei currently has a production site in the Chinese city of Haian, near Shanghai."With the additional production site in Sanming we can further expand our presence in China," Stieler said.

Under the new arrangement, KraussMaffei will continue to be headquartered in Munich and drive its international business from Germany. The German codetermination rights, the legal status of the KraussMaffei Group GmbH as well as employee and union agreements remain unchanged.

The rubber and plastics machinery supplier expects the access to the Chinese capital market will enabled it to "further accelerate" its growth and contributed to its digitally-orientated "compass" strategy.

"We are expanding our product portfolio with new machinery series for volume markets and are broadening our digital services business. We are rapidly advancing local business models, especially in China," Stieler said.

The company's "compass" strategy involves expanding its business models, especially in digital services. As part of this, KraussMaffei launched its new digital service solutions business in July last year.