Inovance, China’s largest industrial automation group, has announced completion of the acquisition of BST, a major supplier of electrical components for elevators, creating an international centre of world-class manufacturing and innovative R&D, with elevator revenues of $500m+. The acquisition brings together the elevator control technology expertise of Inovance’s existing elevator business unit, Monarch, with BST’s range of customer-facing electronic control components which includes buttons and COPs/LOPs and inspection boxes. Additional BST products includemechanical door headers and cabling solutions. The merged company, Monarch BST, offers the world’s widest elevator control solution portfolio, and it is incorporated into the elevators of leading multinational and regional elevator OEMs worldwide.

Monarch specialises in elevator controllers and gearless drive technology, and pioneered elevatorIntegrated Solutions: an ‘all-in-one’ concept that combines both the elevator controllerand the drive in a single package. The NICE series, Monarch’s family of Integrated Solutions, has an installed base of >2,000,000 worldwide.Monarch BST will form a single elevator division within Inovance, with complimentary technology portfolios to allow easy product integration. This will be of major benefit for customers who choose to buy elevator product packages from Inovance.

Additionally, the significantly widened product portfolio gives much greater capability for the creation of customised solutions, and offers a one-stop solution centre for those customers who want the simplicity of being able to buy all their elevator control productsfroma single supplier. Meanwhile, Monarch BST’s global network of sales offices, service centres and approved distributors delivers a comprehensive sales and support network across Europe, Africa, the Americas, the Middle East andAsia Pacific.

Bob Shao, CEO of Monarch BST, says: “We are very excited that Inovance has acquired BST. BST’s expertise at elevator user interfaces and components is second-to-none and we see a strong complimentary fit for Monarch and BST operating as one business unit in the global elevator market. The benefits to our customers will be wide-ranging, but perhaps the most important is the easy product integration that will be enabled by Monarch BST’s complimentary technology.

“Additionally, the resulting global sales and support network will mean customers who need new components or technical support can access our products and expertise immediately, no matter where they are in the world. Joining Inovance is of strong benefit to BST because the significant size of the Inovance Group offers a rock-solid base of support and a strong source of expertise and investment into manufacturing and R&D. We are aiming for rapid global growth, and I genuinely believe that the Monarch BST business platform is now the world’s leading elevator control technology company, both in terms of revenues and technical expertise.”

About Monarch

Monarch, founded in 2003, specialises in elevator controllers and gearless drive technology. The companypioneered the concept of integrated solutions that combine an elevator control with the drive in a single package. Monarch's product portfolio includes a range of open and closed loop integrated elevator controllers such as NICE3000+, NICE1000+ and NICE100+; as well as the NICE900 integrated door operator controller. Additional products include a range of open and closed loop elevator and escalator drives: MD380L, ME320LN and WISE310. As of 2019, the company has an installed base of >2,000,000 NICE integrated solutions.

About BST

Shanghai BST (BST), founded in 1998, is comprised of three business platforms: electrical components, door systems and cables. The company is one of the world’s largest suppliers of electrical components for elevators and has customers in over 83 countries. BST’s offering includes buttons and HMIs, inspection boxes, mechanical door headers and cabling solutions, as well as a wide range of engineering and maintenance services. In 2019, BST was acquired by Inovance and merged with Monarch to form a comprehensive elevator business platform.

About the Inovance Group

Inovance is a leading provider of industrial automation solutions. The company was founded in 2003 in Shenzhen, China, and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2010. With revenues of $1.2bn and a strong global customer base, Inovance offers a hub of world-class manufacturing and innovative R&D. The company has a rapidly expanding global presence, and maintains offices, factories and R&D facilities in China, India and South Korea. It also has a dedicated European division – Inovance Technology Europe – with facilities in Germany, France, Italy and Turkey – allowingit to offer fast delivery and local support across the continent. Inovance has invested heavily in European R&D, and bases its large local engineering research team in Germany, with a secondary R&D team located in Italy. The company’s European R&D teams develop fully compliant European products designed for the local market, and are currently working on a variety of CNC real-time machine control products. Inovance’s European development efforts are rapidly expanding to encompass high-end motion control, servos and drives.For more information, visit www.inovance.com