Shanghai (ZXZC)- TUS International (TUS), a Chinese tier-one provider of autonomous driving solutions announced on July 12 that the company conditionally agreed to acquire the Italy-based IoT solution provider Telit's automotive unit (the target company) for $105 million, to further strengthen the company's intelligent driving system business.   

Telit is one of the major global suppliers of automotive connectivity module, who set the automotive-grade wireless connectivity standards for European Market. The company not only has the product portfolio covering diversified network technologies in 3G, 4G/LTG and LTE-A, but also has made progress on V2X and 5G technologies. By the end of 2017, there are over 5 million cars equipped with Telit's connectivity modules. Besides, the Italy-based company has R&D centers in France, Belgium and Israel with a R&D team which accounts for 75% of the company's total employees.

According to official introduction, TUS is a leading provider of ADAS solutions and city-level autonomous driving cloud control solutions in China. The group is committed to developing comprehensive autonomous driving systems (which feature such capabilities as AI deep learning and the next-generation of car-borne computing platform), and the vehicle-cloud computing autonomous driving solutions.

TUS delivered 1.3 million suits of camera-based ADAS throughout 2017 with a market share of around 35% and gained annual revenue of nearly HK$ 260 million.

A statement on its official website said that TUS has been actively implementing China's strategy to develop intelligent-connected vehicles (ICV). In May of 2018, the group established China's first ICV Cloud Control Foundation Platform (Shanghai) Pilot Zone to promote a scale application demonstration and commercialized usage of cloud foundation platform. 

TUS considered that the acquisition will bring synergies between its existing business and the target group's business.

TUS is a leader in developing “National Cloud Control Platform for ICVs”, which will create huge marketing demands for V2X and 5G connectivity modules. Combining Telit's advantage in SoC (system on chip), TUS will see a significant elevation in the competence of cloud control technology with acceleration of commercial use.

Besides, TUS's existing sales and service network will bring extensive market access for Telit's business in China. Meanwhile, the target group has rich customer resources in overseas market, which will create important cross-selling opportunities for the Chinese purchaser.

Last but not least, TUS's business foundation, financial performance, R&D capability as well as access to global talents will be evidently improved after this acquisition, so that a better development in next-generation key technologies such as vehicle computing platform and cloud control solutions can be expected.