1 8 · d e t e k t o r i n t e r n a t i o n a l
business
news
Flir achieves highest annual
revenue in company history
Panasonic looks to sell Chinese camera factory
Wilsonville, Or (USA)
Tokyo, Japan
Flir Systems
, Inc. has announced
its financial results for the full year
ended December 31, 2017. The
revenue was $1,800.4 million, up
8% compared to $1,662.2 million
for the year ended December 31,
2016. Organic revenue growth was
2% with prior year acquisitions
contributing approximately 6% of
revenue growth in 2017.
The revenue from the Surveil-
lance segment was $545.8 million,
an increase of 2% over last year. The
Instruments segment contributed
$357.8 million of revenue during
2017, up 6% over 2016. The
Security segment recorded revenue
of $231.5 million in 2017, down
4% from the prior year. Flir's OEM
& Emerging Markets segment
had $347.2 million of revenue, an
increase of 42% over the prior year,
which was driven by the addition
of the Integrated Imaging Solutions
line of business acquired late in the
fourth quarter of 2016. Revenue
from the Maritime segment was
$189.7 million in 2017, which
was 2% higher than the prior year.
The Detection segment contrib-
uted $128.5 million of revenue, an
increase of 4% over the prior year.
Latest reports suggest that Pana-
sonic
is looking to sell its security
camera manufacturing business in
Southeast China for over 50 billion
Yen (approx. 470 million USD).
Information cited by Nikkei says
that with 40 per cent of the market
share, Panasonic appears to control
its home market, but the company's
global share is very small in com-
parison with its Chinese rivals that
dominate internationally. Hence
the cost cutting exercise which
may result in Panasonic procuring
its cameras from other sources,
which may include the buyer of
the factory that is the subject of the
potential sale.
The Nikkei report also said that
Panasonic Group's security camera
operation is positioned within an
internal company dedicated to
corporate systems. Their report
suggests that Panasonic is planning
to raise that company's operating
margin by shifting from hardware
to software, such as facial recogni-
tion technology.
The report states that the Japa-
nese manufacturer has already con-
tacted investment funds and other
potential buyers and speculates that
candidates for the purchase may
include U.S. equity fund Carlyle
Group and British funds Permira
and CVC Capital Partners.
Reuters says that Carlyle and
CVC were unavailable for comment
and that Permira did not want to
comment. Reuters also confirmed,
that after contacting a spokesperson
from Panasonic they were able to
report that "the firm was consider-
ing various options to strengthen its
security systems business, but that
nothing has been decided."
Both agencies suggest that
Panasonic wants to close first-round
bidding on the sale in early April,
but that any discussions could be
terminated if the company's target
price is not met.
Go The Distance
VARIO2 Next Generation LED Illuminators
Up to Double the Power Output - Greater Illumination Distances - Outstanding Surveillance Images at night
Standardised Specification Data - Advanced Security Settings
www.rayteccctv.com
Det INT 2_18_v2.indd 18
2018-04-09 13:54