Japan’s Sodick to acquire minority share in Prima Additive
Sodick Co. Ltd, Yokohama, Japan, and the shareholders of Prima Additive, part of Italy’s Prima Industrie Group, controlled by Alpha Private Equity and Peninsula Capital funds, have signed an investment agreement through which Sodick will acquire a minority share of 9.5% through a reserved capital increase. The agreement will also see the development of a business alliance between the two companies.
Sodick manufactures high-speed and high-precision machine tools, as well metal Additive Manufacturing machines and hybrid systems that combine additive and subtractive processes. Sodick has a large customer base and sales network in the field of precision machinery around the world, particularly in Asia.
Prima Additive develops, manufactures and sells machines for metal Additive Manufacturing using Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) and Direct Energy Deposition (DED), as well as other advanced laser technologies, including remote laser welding and laser hardening, processes particularly used in the automotive sector.
In addition to machine development, Prima Additive also focuses on application capacity testing in various industrial sectors, including automotive, aerospace, jewellery and medical. In Europe, Prima Additive actively collaborates with universities and research centres and is recognised as one of the main players in the market of laser technologies for metal Additive Manufacturing.
Through the business alliance agreement, Prima Additive and Sodick will develop new applications and machines for metal Additive Manufacturing. Furthermore, the collaboration between the two companies will allow the promotion and cross-selling of the products of the two brands in the markets of Japan, Europe and the United States.
Paolo Calefati, CEO of Prima Additive, declared, “We warmly welcome Sodick into our corporate structure: an investment by another important industrial partner that gives confidence in the company’s growth path. This is a project in which possible and future synergies will be explored, at the centre of which there will be the valorisation of the complementarity of the products, but also of cultural differences. It is a project that brings together two companies that approach the world of metal Additive Manufacturing starting from the search for profitable and scalable applications thanks to an innovative mindset and a strong industrial tradition.”
