Fujifilm Eyes M&A, Partnerships To Expand Solutions Business In Malaysia
By Harizah Hanim Mohamed
KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 (Bernama) -- Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp is looking for opportunities to expand its business solutions segment in Malaysia through new business ventures, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), as businesses in the country increasingly embrace digital transformation.
President and chief executive officer Naoki Hama said the Japan-based company sees Malaysia as a strategically important market within its Asia-Pacific network and expects the solutions business to continue expanding alongside the country's digitalisation efforts.
"We are looking into how we can make use of the existing ecosystem to provide solutions to our customers. While we have no plans to set up a factory, Malaysia has been Fujifilm's Asia-Pacific regional shared services hub for the past 21 years.
"We provide technical support, customer support and operational support for the region, ranging from Australia and New Zealand to Asia and Korea, excluding China, all from Malaysia," he told Bernama in an interview.
Meanwhile, when asked about the breakdown of its business revenue in Malaysia, Hama said traditional office equipment continues to account for the larger share of its business, although the solutions and services segment has grown to about 30 per cent and continues to expand.
He said Malaysia is gradually moving towards the level seen in more developed markets in the region, where digital solutions contribute a significantly larger share of revenue.
"In Singapore and Hong Kong, the proportion of solutions revenue is close to or even more than 50 per cent. In countries like Vietnam and the Philippines, it is not so much the solutions business that is growing, but rather the traditional multifunction printers business.
"As for Malaysia, similar to Japan, more profit is still generated from the hardware side, but the solutions business is growing rapidly," he said.
Hama attributed the growing demand for solutions to the acceleration of digital transformation following the COVID-19 pandemic, supported by government initiatives and increasing awareness among Malaysian businesses of the need to digitalise their operations.
"Malaysia has a stable economic base and continues to grow. Since COVID-19, things have changed. The government has introduced policies to promote digital transformation and we are also receiving more requests from Malaysian companies.
"I sense that companies are becoming increasingly aware of the need to move in that direction and are seeking our support as a result.
"With a stable economy, political stability and a strong pool of talented people, Malaysia is an ideal location for businesses such as data centres," he said.
Asked whether the current global geopolitical landscape has influenced the company's strategy for the Malaysian market, Hama said Malaysia's relatively low geopolitical risk further strengthens its attractiveness as an investment destination.
He said Malaysia does not have a strong bias or alliance with any particular country, maintains stable diplomatic relations with nations around the world and is generally viewed as a politically neutral market.
"The likelihood of geopolitical risk in Malaysia is relatively low, and that is definitely one of the factors that makes the country attractive to us," he said.
Malaysia has served as Fujifilm Business Innovation's Asia-Pacific regional shared services hub for more than two decades, supporting markets across Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Korea, excluding China, while also emerging as one of the company's key growth markets for digital solutions.
Celebrating its 60th anniversary in Malaysia this year, Fujifilm Business Innovation Malaysia continues to expand its digital transformation portfolio, offering workflow automation, document management, large language model-enabled optical character recognition, IT services, cybersecurity and managed services to help organisations improve productivity and accelerate digitalisation.
-- BERNAMA