Merger in 2020 for DMG Mori Seiki AG and DMG Mori Seiki Co

Comments made by Coventry-based DMG Mori UK managing director Steve Finn at a recent Open House event, together with recent reported comments from the top men of both DMG Mori Seiki Co and DMG Mori Seiki AG have made explicit the 2020 merger date. DMG Mori Seiki AG's chairman of the executive board, Dr Ruediga Kapitza, confirmed 2020 in a telephone interview reported by Bloomberg (See here), adding that the date would not be brought forward. Dr Masahiko Mori, president of DMG Mori Seiki Co, also confirmed the 2020 date, but in more extravagant and topical terms when asked why the merger would take so long. "A team that intends to play in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will set up a schedule and begin practicing, starting 10 years in advance. It's the same with us," he is reported as saying by http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp – the same article is the source of the estimated sales figures of the two companies in 2020. More seriously, he reveals in the Nikkei online article that the company's acquisition of fellow Japanese machine tool firm Hitachi Seiki Co in 2002 took a long time to fully realise. "Only recently could you say that we have finally merged in both name and practice," Dr Mori said. And the current planned merger is between a German firm and a Japanese firm this time, the article highlights. The two machine tool makers, which announced their cooperation in March 2009 and who sell through DMG Mori organisations around the world (previously DMG Mori Seiki), will, once merged, be listed on both Frankfurt and Tokyo stock exchanges. German firm DMG Mori Seiki AG currently holds 9.6% of DMG Mori Seiki Co shares, while the Japanese firm owns 24.9% of DMG Mori Seiki AG. Note: The name changes for each company and for selling organisation DMG Mori came into effect on 1 October 2013 Image: New brand logo for the two companies' machines