Motilal Oswal PE-backed Minda Industries Ltd has acquired Spain’s Clarton Horn S.A.U. from PMAn Domestic AG, an entity affiliated to the Swiss investment firm Quantum Kapital, for €6.8 million ($8.9 million).
Minda signed the agreement with PMAn two months ago for the transaction and said the deal would be valued at around €7.2 million, which was to be financed through debt and internal accruals. The latest announcement means it has brought down the deal value marginally.
Clarton Horn is a leading manufacturer of automotive electronic horns, supplying to all major OEMs in Europe. The firm has a manufacturing plant in La Carolina in Spain and sales office in Germany. Last year, the annual turnover of Clarton Horn was €38 million ($49.7 million).
Quantum Kapital had acquired Clarton Horn from auto component giant Robert Bosch GmbH in 2008 and restructured to turn around the unit, so that it became one of the top manufacturers of automotive horns globally.
The current acquisition will push Minda in the top league of suppliers of automotive horns.
Headquartered in Manesar (Haryana), Minda Industries is a public-listed auto ancillary company which makes switches for two-wheelers and three-wheelers, as well as for off-road vehicles and operates under the brand name Uno Minda.
The firm has 32 manufacturing plants in India, Indonesia and Vietnam; design centres in Taiwan and Japan, and sales offices in the US, Europe and Vietnam. It also has a strategic sourcing office in China.
In January 2010, the firm raised $8.5 million from India Business Excellence Fund (managed by the Motilal Oswal Group) by issuing cumulative compulsorily convertible preference shares. In May that year, Minda also sold its stake in the JV Valeo Minda Electrical Systems India Pvt Ltd to the JV partner Valeo SA.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)
