Ashok Minda Grp acquires German firm Schenk Plastic

New Delhi, Sep 2 (UNI) In a bid to strengthen its presence in the European market, the country's leading auto component maker Ashok Minda Group today said it has acquired Germany's automobile interior plastic maker Schenk Plastic Solutions.

''The company has purchased hundred per cent equity capital of Schenk through an all cash transaction,'' Group Chairman Ashok Minda told reporters here.

However, refusing to divulge the financial details of the deal, he said, ''We have signed trade agreements with our customers who have agreed to buy our products for three to five years and could not break the deal in between. There is a clause in the agreement under which we cannot disclose the acquisition amount.'' After the acquisition, the German company has been rechristened as Minda Schenk Plastic Solutions GmbH.

The 40 per cent of the deal has been funded through internal accruals and the rest by debt.

The 480-crore (75 million euro) company Schenk, with an EBIDTA of eight million euro last fiscal, has one plant each in Esslingen and Bretten in Germany and another in Liberec in Czech Republic.

Schenk, which employs about 500 people, has clientele, including Daimler, BMW, VW, Fehrer, Lear and Johnson Controls.

This acquisition is Minda Group's second European acquisition, with last year's purchase of another plastic interior plant at Pirna in Germany.

The Minda Group, which supplies security systems, driver information systems and plastic injection moulded interiors to many domestic as well as global OEMs, currently has 21 plants in India and overseas countries like Germany, Indonesia and Vietnam.

UNI MP SG AS1530