Jerome Favre/Bloomberg NewsYang Yuanqing, Lenovo’s chief executive.
6:28 p.m. | Updated
Lenovo, the Chinese computer maker that bought I.B.M.’s PC division six years ago, said Wednesday that it planned to take control of a German consumer electronics manufacturer, Medion, in a deal valuing the company at $909 million.
Lenovo said the acquisition would double its share of the German PC market, where it would become the third-largest player after Acer and Hewlett-Packard. The deal, expected to close in the third quarter, would be the first time a Chinese company has bought a well-known German brand like Medion, which supplies computers and other devices to the discount chain Aldi.
Yang Yuanqing, chief executive of Lenovo, said the company planned to combine “this ‘front end’ with Lenovo’s ‘back end’ manufacturing capability and supply chain” in a push further into Europe.
The move will give Lenovo 14 percent of the German PC market and about half that share for the PC market in Western Europe, the company said. It resembles Lenovo’s landmark 2005 deal in America, when it bought the ThinkPad PC division of I.B.M. for $1.75 billion.
Gerd Brachmann, chairman of Medion, agreed to sell two-thirds of his 60 percent stake in the company. He will be paid in cash for 80 percent of the shares he is selling and receive 20 percent in Lenovo shares. That would give him about 1 percent of Lenovo, the world’s fourth-largest PC maker after H.P., Dell and Acer.
Both the Lenovo and Medion boards have approved the deal. Lenovo said the acquisition was contingent on an additional 15 percent of Medion shares being tendered by investors other than Mr. Brachmann. The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, will be financed with Lenovo’s cash reserves.
Shares of Medion rose 1.95 euros, or almost 18 percent, to close at Lenovo’s offering price of 13 euros ($18.69).
Founded in 1983 by Mr. Brachmann, Medion is based in Essen, Germany, and employs about 990 people. It reported net income of 4 million euros for the first quarter, up from 3 million euros for the comparable period a year earlier, but sales declined to 371 million euros in the first quarter this year from 411 million euros in the period a year earlier.
Lenovo hired Barclays Capital as its financial adviser. The company last week reported sales of $21.6 billion for the year ended March 31.
The largest shareholder in Lenovo’s parent company, Legend Holdings, is the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a government research institute. An employee group and the conglomerate China Oceanwide also hold major stakes.
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