IPC Corp Ltd may have burned its fingers with its investment in Compagnie des Machines Bull SA – actually it washed its face on the deal, coming out a little ahead – but the Singapore company is not put off Europeans, and yesterday announced that it had invested $11.5m for a 14% stake in Hagenuk Telecom GmbH, loss-making Kiel-based maker of digital cellular telephones, which was bought by Manfred Schmitt, founder of foundering Escom AG, last year. IPC also has agreement with Schmitt to swap 33 .23m new IPC shares for a further 29.04% of the German company, conditional on Hagenuk meeting production targets and IPC obtaining approval from the Stock Exchange of Singapore. Hagenuk, which lost $66m on sales of $267m in 1994, has given IPC exclusive rights in Asia and non-exclusive rights in Europe and the US to act as its international procurer for components. The two will also set up a company to market Hagenuk’s phones in Asia and Australia, and Malaysian contract manufacturer Tru-tech Electronics Sdn Bhd will take a 4.8% stake in Hagenuk Telecom – and will be making the phones, presumably.
