The Chinese group Peace Mark has acquired STM Holding SA, which owns the companies Soprod, SFT and Indtec.

According to the magazine ‘Business Montres’, Soprod produces around 200,000 mechanical movements (from an ETA base) per year. SFT manufactures 80,000 automatic movements per year and Indtec, is the 3rd / 4th global producer of quartz movements and components, after Seiko and Citizen, with a production of more than 100 million pieces per year. STM Holding SA counts among its clients notorious brands such as Rolex and Patek Philippe.

Peace Mark, with its headquarters in Hong Kong, was founded in 1983 and has grown exponentially over the last years. With strong design and manufacturing capabilities for watches and movements, the group has facilities in China and overseas. The group was listed on the Hong Kong Stock in 1993.

Mr. Patrick Chau, Chairman of Peace Mark commented, “Some leading luxury mechanical movement manufacturers seem to have started reducing supply to overseas independent third parties. With (this agreement) Peace mark has not only secured a stable source of high quality and low price timepieces movements, but also provided the Group with great flexibility.”

The reaction in the Swiss press shows concern - according to the French-language newspaper ‘Le Temps’, this acquisition is a “veritable shock for the Swiss watch industry”.

Europa Star will be covering this story in depth in its December issue.

To view the September press release from Peace Mark, click here
http://irdoc.quamnet.com/irpdf/e/0304/200709130955_STM_Swissebauches_e.pdf