On July 17, Air Water acquired all the shares of Hitec Holding B.V. (hereinafter “HITEC”) for affiliation which is a manufacturer of diesel rotary uninterruptible power supply (DRUPS) of the Netherlands. The acquisition price seems to be somewhere around JPY10 billion level.

　Uninterruptible power supply devices are roughly divided into two types, battery type and DRUPS. The DRUPS device which HITEC deals with has a feature to control maintenance costs without any need of battery replacement, because the revolution of its part called flywheel enables a continuous power supply even at the time of power stoppage. It is now prevailing extensively ahead in Europe for data centers and semiconductor plants.

HITEC is the pioneer of DRUPS which develop it for the first time in the world in 1956. More than 1 ,500 units have been delivered cumulatively, which takes about 30% share over the world. The latest sales amounted to JPY12.6 billion (FY2018 ending December).

In August of last year Air Water acquired 60% shares of Power Partners (hereinafter PP) which is engaged in the system design, construction and maintenance of the device in Singapore. HITEC is the manufacturer of the device for supply to PP. By acquiring both companies, Air Water can develop its integrated business from the supply of the main unit of the device to the implement of maintenance. In addition, it is aimed to reduce costs in the procurement works of parts and also to get a synergy effect for the enhancement of proposing power for customers by sharing technologies with each other.

For the time being emphasis will be placed on the reinforcement of sales to China in which the construction of new data centers will be accelerated to widen the possibility of market expansion. In the domestic market, Air Water is planning to sell the device to the semiconductor plants and data centers taking advantage of the experiences in the supply of the nitrogen fire-extinguishing facilities which the industrial gas division and AW Safety Service are boasting.

Air Water’s overseas engineering business is expected to have sold JPY10 billion in 2019 including the affiliates related to the industrial gas business of Taylor Warton Malaysia and TOMCO. On the other hand, with the affiliation of HITEC the sales of the DRUPS business including PP’s is estimated to reach about JPY18 billion in 2019, and the whole sales in the overseas engineering business is planned to attain a level amounting to JPY30 billion.

With regard to the DRUPS business, Air Water intends to bring it up to a new core of the overseas business following the industrial gas, namely a sales scale of JPY22 billion in 2021 which is the last year of the mid-term plan.