Chinese home appliances maker Midea Group has announced its intention to make an acquisition offer to the German industrial robot supplier Kuka AG.

中国家电生产商美的集团宣布，对德国工业机器人供应商库卡集团有收购意向。

Kuka has been valued by Midea at around 4.4 billion euros, or about 5 billion US dollars.

Midea just raised its stake in Kuka to 10.2 percent in February.

Now it is seeking to increase its stake to at least 30 per cent, making Midea the biggest shareholder of Kuka.

Established in 1898 in southern Germany, Kuka has yearly revenue of 3 billion euro, in which half of its profits comes from China and the United States.