On March 29, 2024, an investment agreement was signed between Sodick Co. Ltd, a Japanese company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and the shareholders of Prima Additive – an Italian company part of Prima Industrie Group, controlled by Alpha Private Equity and Peninsula Capital funds, active in the production of industrial systems for metal additive manufacturing and other advanced laser technologies – through which the Japanese company will acquire a minority share of 9.5% through a reserved capital increase. The agreement will also allow the development of a business alliance between the two companies functional to the growth of the product portfolio relating to laser technologies for material processing of the two companies, focused in the field of industrial technologies for metal additive manufacturing.
Sodick boasts among its strengths the creation of high-speed and high-precision machine tools, as well as the production of systems for metal additive manufacturing and hybrid systems that combine additive and removal processes. Sodick also has a large customer base and sales network in the field of precision machinery around the world, particularly in Asia.
Prima Additive develops, manufactures, and sells systems for metal additive manufacturing using Laser Powder Bed Fusion technology, on which Sodick is also active, Direct Energy Deposition technology, as well as other advanced laser technologies, including remote laser welding and laser hardening, processes particularly used in the automotive sector. In addition to system development, one of Prima Additive's greatest strengths is its application capacity tested in various industrial sectors, including automotive, aerospace, jewelry and medical. In Europe, Prima Additive actively collaborates with universities and research centers and is recognized as one of the main players in the market of laser technologies for metal additive manufacturing.
The collaboration between Sodick and Prima Additive therefore turns out to be particularly interesting due to the complementarity of the offer of the two brands from the point of view of technologies, products, interested market sectors, customers, applications, and geographical areas.
Thanks to the business alliance agreement, Prima Additive and Sodick will cooperate in the field of metal additive manufacturing systems, a sector that is expected to grow in the coming years and in which the union of the skills of the two companies will allow important developments of new applications and new systems. Furthermore, the collaboration between the two companies will bring commercial synergies that will allow the promotion and cross-selling of the products of the two brands in the markets of Japan, Europe, and the United States.
Prima Industrie, also following the capital increase reserved for Sodick, remains the reference shareholder of Prima Additive as well as its industrial partner.
On the occasion of signing the operation, Paolo Calefati, CEO of Prima Additive, declared: “We warmly welcome Sodick into our corporate structure: an investment by another important industrial partner that gives confidence in the company's growth path. This is a project in which possible and future synergies will be explored, at the center of which there will be the valorization of the complementarity of the products, but also of cultural differences. It is a project that brings together two companies that approach the world of metal additive manufacturing starting from the search for profitable and scalable applications thanks to an innovative mindset and a strong industrial tradition."
