Brother set to acquire Mutoh

Brother said via a circa-Pound 163m tender offer last week that it aims to purchase all outstanding Mutoh shares, excluding treasury shares. The aim is to convert Mutoh into a wholly-owned subsidiary.

The move would continue Brother’s strategic push into the industrial print market. It had attempted a hostile takeover of Roland DG nearly two years ago but this failed after the management team at Roland DG succeeded in acquiring a majority stake in the business after increasing their offer.

Brother believes the deal would strengthen the competitiveness of the two companies’ products and services by leveraging technologies held by each.

Brother manufactures a range of home and office printers as well as label printers and garment printers.

Mutoh, meanwhile, offers a raft of eco-solvent, UV, and roll-to-roll printers as well as CAD plotters, so the deal would open Brother up to market segments where it has previously not had a major presence. 

Mutoh has a partnership with Fujifilm to utilise the latter's Aquafuze water-based UV ink technology. Mutoh makes the HydrAton 1642 wide-format printer, which runs the inks, and is rebadged as the Acuity Triton for Fujifilm.

The tender offer period has been set at 30 business days, from 5 February to 23 March 2026, “longer than the statutory minimum of 20 business days [so] shareholders of the target are provided with an appropriate opportunity to decide whether to tender their shares in the tender offer, and parties other than the offeror are also provided with an opportunity to purchase target’s stock,” Brother stated in the tender offer notice.

(Source: PrintWeek.com)