--- title: "ABB values Mitsubishi Electric's breakers at 1.4x sales, four days after Foxconn's 0.37x for its car parts" description: "Inside four days, Mitsubishi Electric agreed to hand half its car-parts unit to Foxconn and control of its low-voltage power distribution business to ABB. Both buyers published the valuation math, both multiples sit on the year ended March 2026, and the seller reports at the end of October." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Deals" published: 2026-10-20T18:01:39.376Z modified: 2026-10-20T18:01:39.376Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/abb-values-mitsubishi-electric-s-breakers-at-1-4x-sales-four-days-after-foxconn-s-0-37x-for-its-car-parts language: en keywords: "M&A, ABB, Mitsubishi Electric, Foxconn, Valuation, Electrification" --- # ABB values Mitsubishi Electric's breakers at 1.4x sales, four days after Foxconn's 0.37x for its car parts > Inside four days, Mitsubishi Electric agreed to hand half its car-parts unit to Foxconn and control of its low-voltage power distribution business to ABB. Both buyers published the valuation math, both multiples sit on the year ended March 2026, and the seller reports at the end of October. ## ABB prints the price of Japan's breaker market ABB, the Swiss electrification and automation group, said on October 20, 2026, that it will pay JPY 79 billion, about $495 million, for a controlling 51 percent of a joint venture holding Mitsubishi Electric's carved-out low-voltage power distribution business, plus the related sales operations outside Japan, with a mid-term option to take it all [1]. The unit, some 2,800 people building circuit breakers, contactors and backup UPS systems in Fukuyama, Japan, and Hanoi, Vietnam, booked net sales of about JPY 102 billion in the year to March 2026 [1]. [ABB printed the valuation in the release](https://www.marketscreener.com/news/abb-joint-venture-with-mitsubishi-electric-to-expand-position-in-asia-pacific-markets-ce785cdbde8ef12c): enterprise value of about $890 million, or 1.4 times sales and 11.1 times EBITDA, easing to the mid-to-high single digits once expected synergies land [1]. Chief executive Morten Wierod's summary sets a target of at least a 20 percent Operational EBITA margin within five years [2]. The deal landed beside [ABB's third-quarter report](https://www.marketscreener.com/news/abb-ltd-q3-2026-results-ce785cdbde81f720): record orders of $12.06 billion, up 40 percent, led by data centers, with Electrification, the division doing the buying, up 70 percent [2][3]. The shares still fell more than 5 percent as AI worries swept European markets [1][2]. ## Foxconn's Friday check came with a ¥100 billion write-down Four days earlier, on Friday October 16, 2026, Hon Hai Precision Industry of Taiwan, the company the world calls [Foxconn](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/foxconn-hon-hai-precision-industry), [signed through its investment arm Lin Yin](https://www.marketscreener.com/news/mitsubishi-electric-hon-hai-precision-industry-foxconn-and-mitsubishi-electric-reach-final-agree-ce785cdadb8cff2d) [for 50 percent of Mitsubishi Electric Mobility, the car-parts unit spun out in April 2024](https://theinference.org/article/foxconn-filed-to-buy-half-of-mitsubishi-electric-mobility-for-up-to-729-million-its-ai-power-chip-deal-waits) [4][5]. The ¥115 billion price, about $727 million, [values the business at ¥320 billion enterprise value](https://electrek.co/2026/10/19/foxconn-mitsubishi-electric-mobility-50-percent-stake-ev-push/): 0.37 times sales, about six times operating profit [4]. Closing is expected in October 2027 [4][6]. The write-down is mechanical: the ¥230 billion equity value sits below the unit's roughly ¥352 billion of net assets, so Mitsubishi Electric expects to book a ¥100 billion impairment this fiscal year [4]. *Chart: **The buyers' own math: 1.4 times sales for the breakers, 0.37 times for the car parts** Column chart comparing the enterprise-value multiples ABB and Foxconn disclosed for the two Mitsubishi Electric businesses* *Enterprise-value multiples disclosed by the buyers, on FY2025 results, the year ended March 2026. ABB's earnings multiple is EBITDA; Foxconn's is operating profit. [1][4]* The car unit brought in ¥875.6 billion of revenue in the year to March 2026, down ¥43.5 billion on the year before, and is guided to ¥820 billion this year against a partners' target above ¥1 trillion by the fiscal year starting April 2030 [4]. *Chart: **The unit Foxconn bought is shrinking into its ¥1 trillion target** Column chart of Mitsubishi Electric Mobility revenue: FY2025 actual, FY2026 company guidance, and the partners' FY2030 target* *Mitsubishi Electric Mobility revenue, fiscal years ending March, yen billions. FY2026 is company guidance; FY2030 is the partners' revenue target for the year starting April 2030. All three figures as stated by Electrek. [4]* ## The tell is what the ¥194 billion buys The same Tokyo board sold two hardware businesses inside four days, and both prices are multiples on the year ended March 2026 [1][4]. ABB's case is its own sales channel, with "long-term returns well above cost of capital" in Wierod's words [2]. Foxconn's is the software: Jun Seki, its EV chief strategy officer and a former Nissan executive, told reporters "what attracted us most was the electronic-control technology" [7]. Takayuki Tsuzuki, the Mitsubishi Electric senior executive officer who keeps the factory automation group, signed a handover note praising a power distribution business built over "the past 100 years" [1]. The two checks sum to about ¥194 billion, for businesses that generated roughly a sixth of group revenue of ¥5,894.7 billion last year [1][4]. What stays is factory automation, cooling, and power semiconductors already in merger talks with the chipmaker Rohm and Toshiba since March [4][5]. When Mitsubishi Electric reports at the end of October, watch where the money goes: factory automation, the power-chip merger, or [the roughly €5 billion European arm of TK Elevator it is reportedly circling](https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/unternehmensnachrichten/thyssenkrupp-rises-as-japanese-bidders-circle-tk-elevator-s-european-arm/70245037) [5][8]. The checks cover about a fifth of that one. ## Takeaway Two buyers published their own valuation math for two Mitsubishi Electric units inside four days, and the gap, 1.4x sales for ABB's breakers against Foxconn's 0.37x for car parts, prices the difference between data-center electrification demand and a shrinking auto supplier; both sit on the year ended March 2026, and the seller reports at the end of October. ## Sources 1. [MarketScreener (EQS), ABB media release: ABB joint venture with Mitsubishi Electric to expand position in Asia-Pacific markets, 20 October 2026](https://www.marketscreener.com/news/abb-joint-venture-with-mitsubishi-electric-to-expand-position-in-asia-pacific-markets-ce785cdbde8ef12c) 2. [MarketScreener (Publicnow), ABB Ltd: Q3 2026 results (interim report and CEO summary), 20 October 2026](https://www.marketscreener.com/news/abb-ltd-q3-2026-results-ce785cdbde81f720) 3. [Data Centre Magazine, ABB Announces JV with Mitsubishi Electric and Q3 Results, 20 October 2026](https://datacentremagazine.com/news/abb-announces-jv-with-mitsubishi-electric-and-q3-results) 4. [Electrek, Foxconn pays $727M for half of Mitsubishi Electric's car parts unit in EV push, 19 October 2026](https://electrek.co/2026/10/19/foxconn-mitsubishi-electric-mobility-50-percent-stake-ev-push/) 5. [MarketScreener (Publicnow), Mitsubishi Electric release: Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) and Mitsubishi Electric Reach Final Agreement on Strategic Alliance, 16 October 2026](https://www.marketscreener.com/news/mitsubishi-electric-hon-hai-precision-industry-foxconn-and-mitsubishi-electric-reach-final-agree-ce785cdadb8cff2d) 6. [RTTNews, Foxconn To Acquire 50% Stake In Mitsubishi Electric Mobility For 115 Bln Yen, 19 October 2026](https://www.rttnews.com/3700009/foxconn-to-acquire-50-stake-in-mitsubishi-electric-mobility-for-115-bln-yen.aspx) 7. [TechSpot, Foxconn's latest EV push is a $727 million bet for half of Mitsubishi Electric's car parts business, 20 October 2026](https://www.techspot.com/news/114262-foxconn-latest-ev-push-727-million-bet-half.html) 8. [Ad Hoc News (boerse-global.de), Thyssenkrupp Rises as Japanese Bidders Circle TK Elevator's European Arm, 6 October 2026](https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/unternehmensnachrichten/thyssenkrupp-rises-as-japanese-bidders-circle-tk-elevator-s-european-arm/70245037) --- ABB values Mitsubishi Electric's breakers at 1.4x sales, four days after Foxconn's 0.37x for its car parts — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/abb-values-mitsubishi-electric-s-breakers-at-1-4x-sales-four-days-after-foxconn-s-0-37x-for-its-car-parts