On September 28, 2018, Qingdao Sifang SRI Intellectual Technology Co. Ltd. (SRI Intellectual), co-founded by CRRC SRI, CRRC Capital Management Co.,Ltd. and Guohua Fund Management Co., Ltd., and the shareholders of Finland Beneq formally signed a binding legal clause to complete the project acquisition and delivery in Helsinki. SRI Intellectual acquired 100% stake of Finland Beneq.
Founded in 2005, Beneq is headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and mainly focuses on the business of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) Coating and Thin Film Electroluminescence ("EL") Display. As a high-tech company, SRI Intellectual has entered the emerging industry relying on the core technologies of CRRC SRI, and is committed to becoming a high-end supplier of intelligent technology solutions.
Under the background of national “13th Five-Year” development plan which strongly supports the development of such industries as new-generation information technology, green low-carbon, high-end equipments and materials, SRI actively explores strategic emerging industries and fosters new growth poles for its future development. After obtaining the information that Finland Beneq intended to transfer the equity, SRI took the initiative, and after several rounds of negotiations over a period of more than one year, it finally succeeded in the acquisition.
Finland is a technological innovation powerhouse and Espoo is the leading technology center in the Nordic region. Beneq is the only company in the world that can produce transparent displays with transmittance of more than 80% and supplier of the inorganic electroluminescent (EL) display. EL technology adopts the material active light-emitting principle with no need to use backlight for the display, which can realize all-solid-state self-luminous display. It can tolerate the ultra-wide temperature range from -65 ° C to 100 ° C, guarantee the working life of more than 100,000 hours and has the high anti-seismic and anti-shock advantages.
Beneq is also a major supplier of ALD equipment in worldwide scientific research applications which refers to that the material is absorbed on the substrate surface in form of a single atomic film. It has obvious advantages in the thickness control, uniformity of special material surface and pinhole-free surface etc. It is especially suitable for semiconductor less than 28 nm, including Micro-OLED and flexible OLED, and is at the leading level in the worldwide highly-difficult coating applications with high requirements for coating film thickness and uniformity or irregular substrate shapes.
In the rail transit industry, EL transparent display screens can be served as an upgrading alternative to the next-generation high-speed railway and metro display equipments. In the fields of medical treatment, aerospace, industry, high-end consumption, etc., there is also a huge market demand; ALD technology is mature in the semiconductor field and also shows broad application prospect in new energy materials and devices.
Through the acquisition, SRI Intellectual will take Finland Beneq as the bridgehead to connect with and explore the cutting-edge technological innovation, and establish technical R&D center and innovation platform in the world's technological innovation power to keep pace with world’s technical development. Based on the domestic market resources as the channel and the industrial manufacturing as the advantage, the company will concentrate on strengthening the research and application of intelligent technology and rapidly improve the industrialization capability of ALD equipment and EL display.
SRI Intellectual will be committed to promoting the industrialization development of the multi-field thin-film electroluminescent display, and integrate deeply the core technologies of information display and network communication in the field of high-speed railway and urban rail transit with the transparent thin film display and ALD technologies to provide more advanced and high - quality information display solutions for metro, high - speed railway, aviation, automobile and other fields, enter the emerging industries and expand a broader market development space.
Through the acquisition, CRRC SRI will build and nurture a professional and international team in technology, management, marketing etc., actively explore the integration road of technology, talent, management and culture in the process of “going out” of China’s equipment manufacturing industry, and lay a solid foundation for accelerating the internationalization layout of the company.