China's Geeya buys British set-top box maker

SHANGHAI -- China's Geeya Technology Co, a digital TV equipment manufacturer, completed its acquisition of British set-top box manufacturer Harvard International on Tuesday.

Geeya, listed on the Growth Enterprise Market board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, has paid more than 220 million yuan ($34.8 million) to buy all the shares of Harvard International, which was listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange, a Geeya executive said Tuesday.

Harvard International was delisted from AIM after the acquisition.

The acquisition made Geeya the first GEM company in China to buy a foreign firm.

Geeya has advantages in set-top box manafacturing and Harvard International has a sound sales network in the UK and Australia, said Xu Lijie, board secretary of Geeya.

The combination of Geeya's production advantages and Harvard International's experiences in distribution, service and market promotion will give Geeya a complete industry chain and improve its overall profit scale, Xu said.

China's non-financial overseas direct investment reached $35.4 billion in the first half of 2012, of which one-third was cross-border acquisitions, Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said last weekend.