Inovance Acquires BST, Merges It With Monarch

Reorganization eforts look to grow rapidly with combined solutions and R&D

submitted by Monarch BST

On October 15, 2019, at Interlift in Augsburg, Germany, Inovance Group, one of China’s largest industrial automation companies, announced completion of the acquisition of Shanghai BST, a supplier of electrical components for elevators. Additionally, Shanghai BST has merged with Monarch, Inovance’s elevator business unit, to form an elevator business platform for manufacturing and R&D. A well-attended press conference with food and drinks included giveaways sporting the company’s new logo. Presentations from both Monarch and BST were held in which representatives spoke to the crowd about the merger and its benefts to the market.

Elevator revenues from the conglomerate now exceed US$500 million. Combining elevator control technology from Inovance’s existing elevator business unit, Monarch, with BST’s range of customer-facing electronic control components, will ofer buttons and operating panels, inspection boxes, mechanical door headers and cabling solutions.

The merged company, Monarch BST, ofers many elevator control solutions, which are incorporated into the elevators of leading multinational and regional elevator OEMs worldwide. It specializes in elevator controllers and gearless drives. Its controller/drive NICE has an installed base exceeding 2 million units worldwide. Monarch BST will form a single elevator division within Inovance, seeking to ofer complementary technology portfolios to allow easy product integration. This signifcantly widened product portfolio gives much greater capability for the creation of custom solutions and ofers a one-stop solution center for elevator control products.

Monarch BST’s global network of sales ofces, service centers and approved distributors deliver sales and support across Europe, Africa, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia Pacifc. Bob Shao, CEO of Monarch BST, said:

“We are very excited that Inovance has acquired BST……. The benefts to our customers will be wide-ranging, but perhaps most important is the easy product integration that will be enabled by Monarch BST’s complementary 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 beneft to  BST,  because  the signifcant size of Inovance ofers a. . . solid base of support and a strong source of expertise and investment into manufacturing and R&D. We are aiming for rapid global growth ”

BST, founded in 1998, comprises three business units: 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 more than 83 countries. Now acquired by Inovance, it was merged with Monarch to form a comprehensive elevator business platform.

Monarch, founded in 2003, includes open- and closed-loop integrated elevator controllers, such as the NICE3000+, NICE1000+ and NICE100+, as well as the NICE900 integrated door- operator controller. Additional products include open- and-closed loop elevator drives MD380L and ME320LN, as well as the WISE310 escalator drive.

Inovance, also founded in 2003, has ofces, 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, allowing it to ofer fast delivery and local support across the continent. Its large local engineering research team in Germany and secondary R&D team in Italy develop fully compliant European products designed for the local market. They are working on a variety of computer-numerical-control real-time machine- control products as their eforts rapidly expand to encompass high-end motion control, servos and drives.