APW President Systems Ltd. which designs and manufactures standard and customized racks and enclosure systems in India, serving information technology and telecom end-users, was acquired by French giant Schneider Electric. In 2009, Schneider Electric acquired Bangalore-based Meher Capacitors, which makes power factor correction capacitors and another local company, Conzerv Systems, in the energy efficiency market.
With 380 employees and annual sales of about $22 million, APW President Systems has manufacturing facilities at Pune and Bangalore. Laurent Vernerey, Executive Vice-President of Schneider Electric’s IT Business commented: “APW President Systems Ltd brings to us the expertise to customize racks and enclosures for our global data centre customer base. With this acquisition, Schneider Electric becomes a leading Indian player in integrated data center infrastructure solutions and further accelerates its development in the domain of data centers.”
Schneider Electric proposes to acquire shares representing a maximum of 75% of the share capital of the company by acquiring a minimum of 55% of the share capital from the promoter shareholders of APW President Systems Ltd. and up to 20% of the share capital of the company pursuant to a mandatory open offer to be made to the other shareholders.
More such acquisitions, joint ventures and partnerships are likely to unfold as India builds out its infrastructure. Western companies are also beginning to consider India as a base for regional operations in surrounding countries.