VELIKO TURNOVO, BULGARIA -- AQ Group has signed an agreement with Zlaten Lev Holding to buy 94.6% of Bulgarian ODM Carat Electronics. The all-cash deal is valued at €1.58 million and will close July 1, the companies said.

Carat Electronics is a manufacturer of electronic cash registers and electronic electricity meters. It also offers PCB assembly and plastic injection molding subcontracting services. The company has annual sales of approximately €1.5 million, employs 80 workers and owns 10,000 sq. m. of production space across two sites in Bulgaria.

"The acquisition is made to increase our production capacity and further to gain competence in design and production in Bulgaria of injection molding as well as PCB assemblies," said Claes Mellgren, CEO of AQ Group. "We have expanded successfully in the country since 1996 and this is our next step in investments there."

After the acquisition AQ will have close to 1,000 employees in Bulgaria, he said.

Carat Electronics was established as a memory devices manufacturer in 1969. It changed its name to Systems for Teleprocessing and Networks in 1983, and then to Carat in 2005. Zlaten Lev Holding became majority shareholder in 2000.

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