Advantech, an international leader in IPC and eAutomation (stock market code 2395) adopted a board resolution to acquire 10,427 pings of industrial park in Linkou Industrial Park at NT$145,000 per ping, or approximately NT$1.512 billion in total. The new park will be a fully functional campus and the second R&D and manufacturing headquarters of Advantech in Taiwan.

In light of the healthy growth and promising prospects for the IPC industry, Advantech is growing rapidly and doubling its revenues every five years. At the same time, production and warehousing facilities in Taiwan have faced space shortages, and it is anticipated that the R&D office will also be out of space within the next five years. Therefore, Advantech plans to set up this second headquarters in Linkou. The new campus will become an important base for Advantech manufacturing and R&D over the next ten years, and the location of the new park is expected to attract talent from Hsinchu and Taoyuan.

The campus park will be constructed systematically and in stages, and will include a factory, an R&D center, and an office building. The new campus will also provide a venue for an exchange of global talent and a training center. The long-term development plan includes four major elements, including a manufacturing and warehouse distribution center, an R&D building, stationed staff quarters / training center / convention center, and new business incubation centers.

Based on our Greater China Homeland strategy, Advantech looks forward to a future of parallel development in both Taiwan and mainland China. Right now, Advantech’s main R&D capacity is based in Taipei, with twenty percent of R&D work contributed by mainland teams including Kunshan, Shanghai, Beijing, and Xi’an. In the future, Advantech will expand R&D programs in the mainland and build a collaborative R&D center in Kunshan, which will occupy a total area of about 40 acres; this will be started in the first half of 2011. As previously, Taiwan will continue to provide thirty percent of manufacturing capacity, with seventy percent coming from the mainland. After the new park construction is finished, the Taiwan plant will be able to contribute additional manufacturing capacity. With the Kunshan R&D center and the second headquarters in Taiwan, Advantech will be able to fully integrate cross-strait R&D and technology capabilities to create a commanding collaborative environment for future product development.