(Yicai Global) Nov. 24 -- Kuka’s stock price soared after China’s Midea Group announced plans to fully acquire the German industrial robots maker and take the EUR2.96 billion (USD3.32 billion) firm private.

Shares of Kuka [FRA: KU2] ended 10.1 percent up at EUR74.40 (USD83.66) apiece yesterday.

Midea will buy the remaining 5 percent of Kuka it does not own and delist the company from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the Foshan-based home appliances giant said in a statement yesterday. Based on Kuka’s closing price, that will cost Midea about EUR147 million (USD165.3 million). Kuka will then become a wholly owned overseas unit.

Midea is also looking at potentially relisting Kuka on an Asian stock exchange, Bloomberg News reported yesterday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Possible venues include Shanghai’s Nasdaq-like Star Market, they said.

Kuka is a leading global manufacturer of industrial robots for the auto, logistics, electronics, medical, and consumer goods sectors. Midea raised its stake in the Augsburg-based company to 95 percent in 2017 at a cost of EUR3.7 billion.

Fully acquiring the business will help Kuka focus on business operations and enhance the collaboration and sharing of internal resources of the Chinese company in the robotics and automation-related fields, Midea added.

Midea’s shares [SHE:000333] closed up 1 percent at CNY70.15 (USD10.98) today.

Kuka had net profit of EUR29.8 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30. Revenue, which had been declining in the past three years, rose almost 27 percent to EUR2.4 billion from a year earlier.

Editor: Futura Costaglione