DEKRA has acquired 100% of the Andalusian company specializing in testing and certification of wireless technologies. Until now, AT4 Wireless's shareholders included the Andalusian Regional Government, which held almost 50% through the Andalusian Innovation and Development Agency (29.39%) and Andalusian Industrial Verification (20.01%), Caixabank, which held 24.5%, as did the Sando Group, and Ayesa, which held 1.5%.
This acquisition, which guarantees the maintenance of the headquarters in Malaga and the stability of AT4 wireless's jobs, as well as the change of DEKRA Spain's registered office to the Andalusia Technology Park in Malaga, represents a boost for the Spanish company by cementing its presence in Spain and becoming DEKRA's global Center of Competence in testing and product certification of mobile and wireless technologies, EMC and radio frequency.
The Minister of Employment, Business and Trade, José Sánchez Maldonado, announced this business operation at a press conference held at the Malaga headquarters of the Confederation of Andalusian Businessmen (CEA). The event was attended by its president, Javier González de Lara, as well as the executive director and head of the Business Unit of DEKRA Industrial, Ivo Rauh; the general manager of AT4 wireless, Luis Fernando Martínez; and the delegate of the Andalusian Government in Malaga, José Luis Ruiz Espejo.
With this acquisition, DEKRA strengthens its position as a global provider in the market for product testing and inspection using wireless and mobile technologies, facilitating its customers' access to markets for all interconnected products or components, including future technologies such as the "Internet of Things", the "Connected Car" or "Cyber Security".
With this operation, the group also increases its international presence by incorporating the laboratories that AT4 wireless has in Chile, the United States and Taiwan, and is prepared for the challenge of the secure digital interconnection of everyday objects, whether machines, consumer goods or vehicles, now that the connected car or the mandatory nature of systems such as “e-call” or “b-call” are already a reality.
The Spanish group AT4 wireless has become a global leader in the telecommunications sector and has a renowned reputation in technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, UMTS, LTE, NFC, etc.
Boost to internationalization
This international purchase reinforces the expansion process that DEKRA has been leading in recent years, highlighting the area of product testing and certification where the German multinational has acquired the Taiwanese firm QuieTek this year and has founded, also in Taiwan, the “Joint-Venture” DEKRA iST.
Furthermore, the acquisition will allow both parties to boost their international expansion abroad, where DEKRA already has a presence in 50 countries. The Spanish company, for its part, currently operates in markets such as the United States, Canada, Latin America, Japan, Finland, and France, among others.
To increase its revenue fivefold in Spain in 2020
The purchase of AT4 wireless represents a further step in fulfilling the strategic plan that DEKRA Spain has set for itself until 2020, which aims to balance organic and inorganic growth to increase its revenue fivefold in the next five years, with a clear vision of becoming the global partner for a secure world.
In 2014, the company's revenue in Spain reached €21.4 million, 5% more than the previous year. Based on these figures, the group expects revenue to reach around €100 million by 2020; a goal to which the acquisition of the Andalusian company will contribute, since its revenue grew by 14% last year to €30 million.
AT4 Wireless is a global network of laboratories offering testing, consulting, development, and training services to a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, automotive, healthcare, consumer electronics, and security, focusing on wireless and mobile technologies. It also provides consulting services for device certification in approximately 200 countries. Founded in 1991, AT4 Wireless has over 290 employees worldwide and provides services and support to its clients internationally, with its headquarters in Málaga, Spain, and testing laboratories in the United States, Taiwan, Chile, and Japan.
