JAPANESE air conditioining manufacturer Daikin is to buy the Malaysian company OYL, owners of McQuay, J&E Hall and AAF, for a massive £1.1bn. The acquisition will make Daikin the second largest air conditioning manufacturer in the world.
OYL was incorporated in Malaysia in 1974 and at one time manufactured York air conditioners and refrigeration equipment under license in Malaysia as well as assembling Mitsubishi Electric air conditioners. It bought McQuay International from the SnyderGeneral Corporation in 1994 and then in 1996 bought the 'founding father' of UK refrigeration J&EHall.
Referring to the acquisition in Bloomberg, Jesper Koll, chief economist at Merrill Lynch & Co said 'Daikin is just another example that Japan is back. Japan is going to be buying the world.'
The acquisition is expected to enable Daikin to grab a significant air conditioning market share in the USA, a market it has previously struggled to conquer.
Daikin sales rose 8.8% to £3.8bn last year. OYL sales climbed 11% in the year ended June 2005 to £820m.
In a statement, Daikin said that OYL will continue as a consolidated subsidiary Daikin, operating under its current organizational structure for the foreseeable future.