E Ink Holdings, "E Ink" (8069.TW), the leading innovator of electronic ink technology, and SES-imagotag, (Euronext: SESL, FR0010282822) the world’s leader in digital price tags, today announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate and expand their common growth objectives in the retail Internet of Things (IoT) market. As part of this strategic collaboration, E Ink has agreed to complete a 26 million Euro investment in SES-imagotag in the form of a capital increase of SES-imagotag.
E Ink and SES-imagotag have collaborated for years to provide the best technology solution for smart retail tags, including implementing E Ink Spectra™ products, which introduced red and yellow color into the traditionally black and white electronic retail tags. The industrial and sales partnership foreseen by E Ink and SES-imagotag aims to accelerate broader adoption of electronic paper in smart retail applications. Leveraging the core expertise of the respective companies, E Ink will capitalize on the benefits of low power ePaper solutions for IoT applications, and SES-imagotag will accelerate its go-to-market strategy by delivering the best and most effective solutions for smart retail.
“E Ink aims to strengthen its business through closer partnership with players in the smart retail ecosystem, and we plan to continue investing resources into retail applications. We are enthusiastic about the development of ePaper display applications in the retail industry, and delighted to deepen the collaboration with SES-imagotag through this investment,” said Johnson Lee, the President of E Ink Holdings. “With SES-imagotag’s worldwide, leading expertise on smart retail solutions, E Ink and SES-imagotag will expand the ePaper display applications in the smart retail sector together.”
“This partnership moves E Ink’s relationship with SES-imagotag to the next level,” commented Thierry Gadou, the Group Chairman and CEO of SES-imagotag. “Together we build a fascinating and beneficial technology and we know that the retail IoT market is really accelerating. This alliance is long-term and our synergies are countless.”
This strategic relationship is backed by the execution between E Ink and SES-imagotag of a subscription agreement by Yuen-Yu Investment Co. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of E Ink, to a reserved capital increase of SES-imagotag for an aggregate amount of circa 26 million euros, at a price per share of 30 euros. The completion of this capital increase remains subject to the approval by the extraordinary general meeting of SES-imagotag on June 22, 2018. The transaction is expected to be completed shortly after such approval.
This transaction defines E Ink as a strategic partner of SES-imagotag for the supply of electronic ink technology for smart retail use, and mutually, SES-imagotag as one of the major suppliers of smart tags in the smart retail sector.
