Taiwan's largest machine tool maker Fair Friend Group recently announced the acquisition of six German and Russian peer companies, saying the deal will turn FFG into a major player in the EU.

Fair Friend Group Chairman Chu Chih-yang is currently in Germany to attend EMO Hannover 2013, one of the world's most important machine tool trade fairs.

On the opening day of the annual trade show, Chu announced his group's acquisition of six Germany and Russian machine tool companies as part of FFG's globalization bid.

The over 100 million euro worth of deals is the biggest of its kind in the international machine tool industry in recent years. The newly acquired companies are expected to generate an additional NT$13 billion (US$438.45 million) in annual revenues. The deal has also helped made FFG a major player in the European machine tool industry.

In Chu's view, Taiwanese companies cannot just compete with fellow Taiwanese firms, but should also be able to compete with foreign counterparts in the increasingly cut-throat global market.

Chu said he looks forward to making FFG a conglomerate with an annual turnover of NT$100 billion. “I hope to build a machine tool conglomerate that can match such world-class giants as Mazak and DMG,” Chu added.

Over the past decade, FFG has established footholds in Germany, Russia, Italy, the United States, China and Japan.

Chu said the FFG's joint venture with Japan's Marubeni Co. will make inroads into India, Brazil and Mexico next year. “We hope to sell our numerically controlled machine tools to Japanese companies in those emerging markets,” he noted.

FFG's newly acquired companies include five in Germany — Huller Hille, Hessapp, Modul, VDF-Boehringer, and Witzig & Frank — and MAG Russia. Chu said mergers and acquisitions could be the best way to ensure double-digit annual business growth.

FFG now controls 44 brands and 63 production hubs around the globe. Among them, 23 are machine tool brands with 32 production bases.