Chinese Lenovo to buy Aldi's electronics supplier

Chinese computer producer Lenovo has launched a takeover bid on German competitors Medion, known best for producing Aldi’s electronics.

The Chinese company will buy 36.6% of shares from Gerd Brachman, who is Medion’s majority shareholder with 56%. Given its price of 13 euro per share, Lenovo will pay Brachman 231 million euro, esteeming Medion’s worth to be near 630 million euro. The takeover is conditional and will only take place if Lenovo succeeds in getting another 14% of shares elsewhere.

Lenovo is the world’s number 4 computer producer (behind HP, Acer and Dell) with a market share of 9.7%. Medion will add only 0.3% to that, but will be Lenovo’s largest takeover since buying IBM’s computer department in 2004.