Applied Materials to take over Kokusai Electric for $2.2 billion

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) announced its decision to acquire Kokusai Electric Corporation from investment firm KKR for $2.2 billion in cash. The deal is anticipated to close within approx. 12 months subject to approvals.

After the acquisition, Kokusai will operate as a business unit of Applied’s Semiconductor Products Group and will continue to be based in Tokyo, with technology and manufacturing centers in Japan and Korea.

Applied will finance the deal through a combination of cash and a term loan facility. The transaction was approved by Applied’s Board of Directors, and is expected to be immediately accretive to the company’s adjusted EPS at close.

Kokusai provides high productivity batch processing systems which will complement Applied’s single-wafer processing systems. Applied will also benefit from Kokusai’s supply chain and manufacturing capabilities in Japan and Asia.

In its most recent quarter, Applied Materials saw a 23% drop in sales to $3.5 billion and a 41% decline in adjusted EPS to $0.70. The company expects adjusted EPS of $0.67 to $0.75 for the third quarter of 2019.

Applied Materials’ shares have gained 38% so far this year and 13% over the past three months. The stock was up 3.5% in premarket hours on Monday.

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