SCHRAMBERG, GERMANY -- Wus Printed Circuits has struck a deal to acquire a 4.5% stake in Schweizer Electronic for an undisclosed sum.

The two printed circuit board fabricators have been engaged in an exclusive, long-term strategic partnership for the development and production of high frequency PCBs.

"By acquiring this equity stake, Wus underpins its strong strategic interest in Schweizer’s business," the companies said. "This step strengthens Schweizer’s partner network even further and expands the company’s access to a profound internal high technology innovation pipeline."

“Only less than three months ago, Schweizer and Wus agreed on their exclusive, long-term strategic partnership which allows us and our customers access to further HF production capacities in Asia," said Dr. Marc Schweizer, CEO of Schweizer Electronic. "We are very pleased about this soon capital transaction since it enhances WUS’ strong interest in exploiting the business opportunities for HF PCBs on the global automotive market together with Schweizer." 

“The HF market is going to increase fivefold over the next five years, and will have increased ten times by 2024. Schweizer’s HF sales boosted by almost 200% in 2013, and we expect further continuous growth. While our long-term strategy is to steadily increase our market share, we think that together with Wus we will be able to offer our customers supply capacities of 50 million EUR in the first phase. This will trigger an attractive upward potential for us,” he added.

Schweizer also has a partnership with Meiko Electronics in Japan.

Schweizer had sales of 101.2 million euros ($135 million) in 2013, placing it 89th on the annual NTI-100, to be released in August by PCD&F. Wus was 25th at $703 million.