BEIJING, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. authorities have approved JSTI Group (300284.SZ) of China to acquire TestAmerica Laboratories Inc., a leading environmental testing firm in the United States for 18.12 million U.S. dollars, according to recent news reports.
The takeover includes the assumption of the U.S. company’s debts worth some 109 million U.S. dollars. The deal signals JSTI Group, a public company headquartered in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, is moving to make inroads into the environmental protection industry in an all-round way.
Once the acquisition is completed, the JSTI Group will be able to expand significantly its environmental protection business to undertaking projects, optimizing solutions, controlling operation costs, and offering big data service in the international market.
As of the end of March, TestAmerica Laboratories Inc. incurred net losses of 39.64 million U.S. dollars, and its owner's equity reached -569.87 million U.S. dollars. The operations of the company include a nationwide network of over 80 locations delivering innovative technical expertise and comprehensive analytical testing services.
JSTI Group CEO Wang Junhua said his company is “glad” to cooperate with the team of TestAmerica, and together they will not only expand the testing service in the U.S., but also export it to other markets including China where demand for such service is growing fast.
Founded in 1978, JSTI Group was among the first batch of engineering consulting firms in China. With transport engineering consulting and contracting as its main business, the company’s current market value exceeds 10 billion yuan (about 1.44 billion U.S. dollars).
Though the environmental consulting business contributed to merely 1.38 percent of its total operating income last year, the company has planned to make the environmental protection sector a new point of business growth that will account for a third of its operating income in the future.
Fu Guanhua, chairman of the company, disclosed that apart from the acquisition of the U.S. firm, JSTI Group has planned to earmark 1 billion yuan for overseas M&As. Enditem
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