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Neusoft, HII co-op to sharpen automotive electronics

By Tiger Wu (China Daily Liaoning Bureau)
Updated: 2010-04-23 18:03

SHENYANG: China's leading outsourcing company, Neusoft Corporation and Harman International (HII) announced on Thursday that the two companies have agreed to enter into partnership for the development of advanced technologies in automotive and consumer electronics.

This indicates that Neusoft achieves breakthrough after two decades efforts in automotive electronics area.

According to Neusoft, it will purchase HII's subsidiary, innovative system GmbH Navigation-Multimedia (ISG) with 6 million Euro ($7.99 m) and in return, HII will buy Neopost's navigation, and electronics offshore engineering service.

Therefore, Neusoft predicts that its annual income will rise by 120 million Euro ($159.7 m) and the pretax profit will reach 1.21 million Euro ($1.61m).

This means Neusoft's automotive electronics business will go up by 20 percent and help its major business, soft & system integration achieve historical breakthrough.

Liu Jiren, president of the group who started his legend 20 years from providing outsourcing service for Japan's Alpine said Harman's leading market share and close relationships with global automakers will provide a platform for Neusoft's expertise in next-generation technologies for automotive and consumer electronics, which will significantly enhance Neusoft's position in the global product engineering market.

Currently, Neusoft has 1,500 staff workers who specialized in automotive software engineering and contributed almost $80 million last year.

Neusoft's former partner, Japan's Alpine mainly provides services for Japanese brands. The cooperation with HII will help it squeeze into the more profitable European luxury auto industry including Audi, Volkswagen and BMW.

Dinesh C. Paliwal, Harman's Chairman, President and CEO said the relationship would sharpen our execution focus in delivering Harman's record $10 billion audio and infotainment order book.

Even though, both Liu and HII declined to give details about any contract, industry insider predicts that Neusoft is very likely to share this cake as Liu Jiren was elected as HII's independent director last year.

Moreover, to cooperate with HII will help strengthen Neusoft's presence in EU which is also the land of hope for the company in coming years.