SoftBank, ABB explore China carve-out to salvage robotics deal, Bloomberg News reports

Nov 7 (Reuters) – Japan’s SoftBank and Swiss engineering group ABB are looking at carving out the Chinese element of a $5.4 billion robotics deal which was blocked earlier this week by Beijing, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

SoftBank did not respond to requests for comment outside business hours and ABB declined to comment on the report which said that a carve-out would mean setting up a separate entity for the China business with different ownership.

This is the second deal blocked by China this year after Meta was ordered in April to unwind its more than $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus, as Beijing tightens scrutiny of foreign investment involving frontier technologies.

ABB is also considering other options including finding another buyer, the report said, adding that the business could potentially be valued at $2 billion to $3 billion.

China is ABB’s biggest robotics market and accounts for about 30% of its robotics business. It operates about 30 local companies in China with around 15,000 employees in nearly 130 cities, as well as online and offline channels in nearly 700.

(Reporting by Preetika Parashuraman in BengaluruEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Alexander Smith)

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