Aerodyne continues to expand abroad
15 Jul 2022
The drone solutions provider has completed a total of 16 foreign M&As over the last 3½ year
MALAYSIAN drone solutions provider Aerodyne Group said they have completed 16 foreign mergers and acquisition (M&A) activities, and are currently closing another one in Brazil.
Aerodyne founder and CEO Kamarul A Muhamed said those were the total M&As were completed over the last three and half years, with 12 offices worldwide.
However, he did not disclose any values on those completed M&As.
“But it’s still barely enough, for example, in Latin America, we have an office in Santiago, Chile, but suddenly, there’s an opportunity in Brazil or Argentina, it will be very costly in terms of logistics.
“So, we might as well have other drone companies to deliver that solution by subscribing to our domain knowledge and our software system,” Kamarul said during the virtual MIDF Conversations event yesterday.
Aerodyne is a DT3 (drone tech, data technology and digital transformation) drone-based enterprise solutions provider which was ranked first in the world by Drone Industry Insights of Germany last year.
The group has over 900 drone professionals to operate on an unprecedented level in the unmanned aircraft systems services sector, has managed more than 560,000 infrastructure assets with 458,058 flight operations and surveyed over 380,000km of power infrastructure across 35 countries.
Kamarul noted that Aerodyne’s investment in Dubai and Australia have grown over five times in the first year of its investment which is in the middle of the pandemic.
“Why so? It is because we provided better technology for them. That’s the synergy, they give us market access, and we provide them with the technology,” he said.
He also highlighted that the pandemic turned out to be an opportunity for Aerodyne to venture into the agriculture division.
“At the start of the pandemic, I found myself with more than 50 people with nothing to do. So, we started agriculture and it turned out to be a very exciting decision.
“In just one and a half years, the agriculture division has now grown to 350 people,” he said.
According to him, the agriculture division has improved its customer productivity with a 30% yield increase per customer.
Meanwhile, when asked regarding the group’s intention for an IPO, he said Aerodynes plans to be listed in the next two years, while looking for the best market to list its business in.
It is also eyeing to expand its business by providing DT3 solutions to India’s agricultural market next month.
“There is a major push for this technology by the government over there, we have done the market study and some people have already started (providing) it.
“So, I am going to India in the first week of August to start the operations,” he added.
Kamarul said Aerodyne has a stable presence in Malaysia and the use of advanced digital technology and other DT3 solutions in agriculture can enable Malaysia to reduce its dependence on cheap labour.
To date, he said the company has an orderbook of about RM400 million in agricultural produce.
Source: The Malaysian Reserve
