SMD bought by China's CSR

North-east England subsea vehicle specialists Specialist Machine Developments (SMD) is to be taken over by a Chinese corporation. 

Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric Co., which specializes in mass transit electric drive converter and control systems, has agreed to acquire the venture share capital of SMD group from private equity firm Inflexion.

Inflexion says the deal is signed at an enterprise value of £120m, which will represent a return of 2.2x on completion.

Zhuzhou is a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned CSR Corporation Limited of China, which produces electric locomotives.

Andrew Hodgson, CEO of SMD, says: “Becoming part of CSR will be a key step in SMD’s development as a business and we look forward to continuing to deliver to our markets in this new and exciting phase of our history.”

Jiang Yi, Deputy President of CSR Zhuzhou Institute says: “SMD has world class technology, a world class engineering team and an extensive track record in the subsea sector. I believe CSR and SMD will work together to further develop the global subsea equipment market."

This completion of the deal is now subject to completion of the filing procedures with several Chinese regulatory authorities and we expect this process to take between two and four months.