Lasea Group purchases majority of the shares of Optec

07 Aug 2020

Combined group to offer lasers for medical, electronics, academic and luxury goods markets.

Precision laser machine developer Lasea Group, based in Angleur, Belgium, has announced the purchase of the majority shares of Optec, based in Mons, another Belgium-headquartered laser systems company. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Optec, which also has a North American base in San Diego, Ca., specializes in UV and ultra-short pulse lasers with strong markets in the USA and Asia. Lasea stated that the combined group, which now has 110 employees, “offers all subtractive and additive laser solutions for four sectors – medical systems, electronics, academic and luxury good applications.”

“The successful merger between the two companies will be easy to achieve as they already share common values,” commented Axel Kupisiewicz, CEO of Lasea. “We are convinced that our respective customers will benefit from combining operations and that our new products will continue to meet the demands of rapidly growing markets.”

Femtosecond laser micromachining

With an organic annual growth of 32% since 2012, Lasea says it has since multiplied its revenue and number of employees by a factor of seven. It claims to be the European leader in femtosecond laser micromachining, and to have “rapidly increasing market shares in the USA and Japan.” No sales figures were available.

Laurent Marin, CEO of Optec, said, “Optec is a pioneer in athermal laser micromachining. By pooling our skills and our innovations, we can better meet the needs of our customers with our specialized teams. Like our country’s motto, l’union fait la force [strength through union], each of us can apply our talents to be even better.”

Optec specializes in precision machining of polymer materials using excimer lasers (short pulse, UV lasers). It is also a player in the field of ultra-short pulse lasers. These two athermal processes are capable of micron-size precision. Founded in 1991 out of the Label company, a spin-off from the University of Mons, the firm designs and manufactures laser micro-machining machines for the medical and electronics sectors and for safety marking.