Mitsubishi Electric has taken a 19.9% stake in the US industrial software developer Iconics to help it penetrate the growing market for infrastructure projects in emerging markets such as China, Southeast Asia, India and Brazil. The stake will allow Mitsubishi to incorporate Iconics’ Scada (supervisory control and data acquisition) software into its factory and process automation systems.

Mitsubishi will also work with Iconics to develop and market energy management and control systems for factory and process automation applications in emerging markets as they develop their infrastructure in sectors such as ground and air transportation, and water and waste water treatment. Mitsubishi expects sales of factory automation systems for infrastructure projects in these markets to reach around $130m by the fiscal year ending in March 2014.

Iconics, founded in 1986, develops HMI/Scada, manufacturing intelligence, building automation and energy management software for industrial and facility automation systems. It has more than 250,000 installations in more than 60 countries worldwide.