Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Raute strengthens its digital knowhow by acquiring majority holding in Hiottu Oy. Raute Corporation has today signed an agreement on the acquisition of the majority of the share capital in Oulu-based Hiottu Oy. The shareholders employed by Hiottu will continue working for the company.
Hiottu, established in 2005, is a company offering software services with special knowhow in various machine vision solutions and other system solutions for demanding industrial environment. Hiottu Oy complements Raute’s knowhow in digitalization and the acquisition of the company is part of the previously reported investment in digitalization. Hiottu has previously been Raute’s cooperation partner.
The acquisition is carried out as a share transaction, after which Raute’s holds 80 percent of the company shares. Mr. Kari Lapinlampi, one of the founders of the company, holds 20 percent of the company after this transaction and will remain with the company, too. The terms of acquiring also the minority holding through an additional agreement after a transition period have been agreed on in the terms and conditions of the agreement closed today.
Tapani Kiiski, President and CEO says: “The acquisition of Hiottu is an investment in the digitalization in line with our strategy and it strengthens for its part Raute’s excellent machine vision knowhow. Hiottu will be part of our Metrix business, which includes also Mecano Group Oy and Metriguard Inc which have been acquired previously.”
This transaction has no impact on Raute’s outlook for 2020. Raute’s net sales for 2020 are expected to decrease compared to 2019 and operating profit is expected to weaken clearly year-on-year.
Tags: amalgamation, digitalisation, digitalisation and Industry 4.0, europe, Raute Corporation, woodworking and manufacturing, woodworking industry
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