(Yicai) Sept. 5 -- Zhejiang Supcon Technology, a Chinese provider of industrial automation products and smart manufacturing solutions, intends to use USD290 million of the funds it raised from a secondary listing in Switzerland for overseas expansion.

Supcon will spend USD100 million to set up a unit in Malaysia and the same amount for one in Singapore, USD30 million and USD10 million to form a subsidiary in Saudi Arabia and one in Kazakhstan, and USD20 million and USD30 million to increase the capital of its units in Japan and the Netherlands, the firm said late yesterday.

Hangzhou-based Supcon raised USD565 million from a secondary listing on the Six Swiss Exchange in April.

The Singaporean unit will become Supcon's overseas business operations center. It will take advantage of the local high-end computing power and advanced network technology and talent to focus on promoting the research and development of cutting-edge technologies in automation control systems, industrial software, artificial intelligence, and other fields.

The Malaysian subsidiary will be responsible for building and operating local plants that will produce automation control systems and related products to satisfy the needs of Southeast Asian customers quicker while lowering operational costs.

To help its local partners better digitalize their business operations, the Saudi unit will cooperate with Middle Eastern energy giants, such as Saudi Aramco, to build a leading production base to assemble products such as industrial robots and Internet of Things devices and make automated warehouse management facilities, among other types of products.

The firm’s Kazakh subsidiary will become Supcon's Central Asian business operations center, fostering applications of Supcon-developed oil and gas solutions for the local petrochemical industry.

Supcon's Japanese arm will use the added capital to set up a local R&D center to make full use of local technologies in the sensor, instrument, apparatus, and other hardware device fields, aiming to make better use of local resources in coordination with Supcon's global business strategy and R&D efforts.

The new capital injected in the Dutch unit will be mainly used on R&D and to expand the capacity of the local high-end analytic devices plant to enhance Supcon's product manufacturing, R&D, and general business operating capabilities in Europe to better serve leading European petrochemical clients and explore business opportunities in other emerging industries.

Supcon's shares [SHA: 688777] closed 1.3 percent down at CNY50.30 (USD6.89) each in Shanghai today.

Editor: Futura Costaglione