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The act on has caused a bit of a stir in Swabia, where Mittelstand companies – the grudging and medium sized, niche-focussed businesses that form the courage of the Germany economy– are revered and were previously thought basically invulnerable to Chinese takeover.
Hundreds of workers protested in front of Putzmeister’s headquarters on Monday, panicky of job losses and furious that they had been kept in the dark over the deal with Sany, China’s response to Caterpillar.
This is by no means the first Chinese takeover in Germany of course. Waldrich Coburg, a maker of milling machines, and Dürrkopp Adler, a maker of sewing machines, both kill into Chinese hands some years ago.
Last year Chinese PC-maker Lenovo acquired Medion, a German computer and consumer-electronics maker and earlier this month LDK Solar bought Germany’s Sunways.
Still, few Sino-German deals combat the size or symbolism of Putzmeister, a company founded in 1958 by mastermind Karl Schlecht, who by 2007 had built a €1bn revenue New Zealand from his magical mortar machines.
Source: Financial Times (blog)