French supplier Faurecia will acquire a majority stake in German automotive lighting group Hella, trumping rival bidders and creating the world’s seventh-largest player, Automotive News Europe reported.
Faurecia will buy a 60 percent stake in Hella from the founding Hueck family through a mixture of cash and stock, Hella said in a statement on Saturday. The Hueck family will take up to 9 percent of the combined company.
Faurecia said in a separate statement that the transaction represented an estimated total enterprise value of 6.7 billion euros ($7.9 billion) for 100 percent of Hella.
People familiar with the matter previously told Reuters that Plastic Omnium and Mahle had submitted bids at around 60 euros per share, valuing the target at roughly 7 billion euros. German brakes maker Knorr-Bremse dropped out of the bidding last month.
The deal, expected to close early 2022, is one of the biggest in the European auto parts industry in the past three years.
It will create a company with annual sales of about 23 billion euros – forecasted by Faurecia to exceed 33 billion euros in 2025 – and some 150,000 employees.
Faurecia said the combined group will be better placed to sell electric mobility products and automated driving services to the industry
“Together, we will have the critical edge to benefit from the strategic drivers that are transforming the automotive industry,” Faurecia CEO Patrick Koller said.
Click here to read the full Reuters report from Automotive News Europe.