(Yicai) Nov. 14 -- Shares in Luster Lighttech soared as much as 12.6 percent today after the Chinese machine vision developer said that it will pay EUR103 million (USD100 million) in cash for Danish industrial-grade camera maker JAI to strengthen its leading market position in the machine vision sector and expand its overseas footprint.

Luster’s share price [SHA:688400] closed up 1 percent at CNY24.56 (USD3.40) today. Earlier in the day it hit CNY27.40. Shanghai’s SSE Science and Technology Innovation Board 100 Index, of which Luster Lighttech  is a component stock, closed down 3.6 percent, after trading slightly positive in the early morning.

Luster plans to purchase JAI, but not subsidiaries JAI Inc and JAI Aviation, Beijing-based Luster said yesterday. The firm, which is a unit of JAI Group Industry, performs its research and development and manufacturing in Japan. JAI specializes in the design, R&D, production and sales of feature-rich and reliable industrial-grade cameras that can be used in industry segments such as factory automation, food sorting and smart traffic systems.

The Copenhagen-headquartered company has been operating for over 50 years and has developed a good reputation and large market share in the high-end industrial-grade camera markets in Europe, the US and Japan, it added.

JAI logged net profit of EUR3.4 million (USD3.6 million) for the fiscal year ended March 31 on revenue of EUR34.2 million (USD36.1 million), Luster said.

The acquisition will help combine JAI’s optical imaging technology with Luster's strengths in AI algorithms, thereby enhancing Luster's core competencies in the "Vision + AI" field. This will enable the company to offer a more diverse and high-quality range of machine vision products and solutions to its customers, it added.

Editor: Kim Taylor