Ascendent Capital Partners to Acquire Hollysys Automation Technologies for $1.66bn

Hollysys Automation Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HOLI) (“Hollysys” or the “Company”) today announced that it has reached an agreement to be acquired by Ascendent Capital Partners (“Ascendent”), an international private investment firm headquartered in Hong Kong. The acquisition, which concludes a months-long sale process, will be completed through an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.66bn.

According to the terms of the agreement, Ascendent will acquire all outstanding shares of Hollysys that it does not currently own for $26.50 per share in cash. This price represents a premium of 42% to the unaffected price of $18.66 as of August 23, 2023. The Board of Directors of Hollysys (the “Board”), upon the unanimous recommendation of the Special Committee of independent directors, has given its unanimous approval for the transaction.

Today’s agreement enables Hollysys’ shareholders to realize substantial cash value at a significant premium to the Company’s recent trading price. Additionally, the ability of Ascendent to secure reputable funding sources and execute the transaction expeditiously further enhances the attractiveness of the deal.

This agreement marks the successful culmination of a formal sale process that was part of a review of various strategic options to maximize value for shareholders, including continued execution of the current strategic plan. A sale was determined to provide maximum value discovery to realize the highest value for shareholders.

The Board formed the Special Committee of independent directors on October 2, 2023 to run the sale process with the assistance of external advisors. Throughout the process, the Special Committee engaged in extensive discussions with multiple credible offerors who expressed interest in acquiring the Company and a number of buyers participated in such sale process.

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The deal will be subject to shareholder approval by the Company and certain closing conditions, including customary regulatory approval.

Deutsche Bank AG, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Mourant Ozannes (Hong Kong) LLP, and Haiwen & Partners are serving as advisors to Hollysys. Ascendent is advised by Morrison & Foerster LLP, Appleby and Zhong Lun Law Firm.

Hollysys is a leading automation control system solutions provider in China, with overseas operations in eight other countries and regions throughout Asia. Leveraging its proprietary technology and deep industry know-how, Hollysys empowers its customers with enhanced operational safety, reliability, efficiency, and intelligence which are critical to their businesses. Hollysys derives its revenues mainly from providing integrated solutions for industrial automation and rail transportation. In industrial automation, Hollysys delivers the full spectrum of automation hardware, software, and services spanning field devices, control systems, enterprise manufacturing management and cloud-based applications. In rail transportation, Hollysys provides advanced signaling control and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems for high-speed rail and urban rail (including subways). Founded in 1993, with technical expertise and innovation, Hollysys has grown from a research team specializing in automation control in the power industry into a group providing integrated automation control system solutions for customers in diverse industry verticals. As of June 30, 2023, Hollysys had cumulatively carried out more than 45,000 projects for approximately 23,000 customers in various sectors including power, petrochemical, high-speed rail, and urban rail, in which Hollysys has established leading market positions.

Source: CISION PR Newswire

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