Brother is to take over large format printer producer Mutoh through a tender offer for the shares in the company it does not already speak for.
The larger company has commitments from the majority of shareholders and now needs to complete the process of making Mutoh a directly owned subsidiary. Mutoh’s board has consented to Brother’s takeover.
Mutoh will expand Brother’s interests in inkjet printing, adding to an existing garment printing division through its direct to film printers. Mutoh also produces 3D printers, used for small scale jewellery production and has large format flatbed printers with solvent, UV and latex inks.
Brother has earmarked inkjet technology within its industrial printing sector, which includes UK subsidiary Domino Printing Sciences, as one destined for significant growth.
Mutoh will become part of this with certain products and part of the printing solutions business which for Brother covers office and home printers. Printing will take Brother to sales of ¥1 trillion by 2027 according to the company’s mid term plan.
Mutoh has been suffering from low cost Chinese competitors and high labour costs, which have dented sales in recent years. Brother will be able to transform this by reducing admin costs and taking on manufacturing in other locations around the group.
Mutoh is a very much smaller business than Brother, with 595 staff compared to 2,801 and sales of ¥18.1 billion compared to $876.6 billion, with a commensurately larger r&d budget.
Mutoh’s distribution network can be suitable for smaller Brother products according to the tender document.
The takeover story began in May last year with an approach from Mutoh. That led to a more formal approach in July and offers to purchase shares in September and November. This gave Brother a larger enough percentage to launch the tender offer to mop up the remaining shares.
According to the company’s mid term strategy, printing is one of its core pillars for growth with further M&A activity a strong possibility. It would aim to have the same impact as it has with Domino. Brother bought the inkjet coding, addressing and label print business in 2016, generating sales of ¥59.4 billion that year. In 2024 the Cambridge company reported sales of ¥119.4 billion.
