Mahle is to acquire Delphi’s thermal business reducing the size of the once huge supplier business, built up under General Motors ownership, still further.
Delphi, which was spun off from GM around 15 years ago, then employed around 47,000 people in the US in 47 factories. The latest sale will reduce this down to about 5,000 in five plants.
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Its thermal business has approximately 7,600 employees with annual sales last year of US$1.2bn. After approval by the relevant antitrust authorities, the acquisition by Mahle is expected to be completed in autumn 2015. Mahle will also buy Delphi Thermal’s joint venture in China.
The move supports Mahle expansion in the growing thermal management sector. The company said that thermal management systems will play an increasingly significant role for all potential drive systems of the future – combustion engines, electric drives (batteries and power electronics) and fuel cells.
Delphi Thermal’s products range from HVAC modules and air conditioning compressors to cooling components, and ideally complement Mahle lines.
The business unit, formed with the majority acquisition of the Behr Group in 2013, will be even stronger while the air conditioning compressor technology will round out the product range.
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By GlobalDataThe German company said its goal was to integrate the 13 Delphi plants in Europe (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary), North and South America (US, Mexico, Brazil), and Asia (China, India), as well as the development centres in the US and Luxembourg, into its global group organisation.
Heinz Junker, Mahle’s chairman and chief executive officer, said: “With the acquisition of Delphi’s thermal management division, we will reinforce our commitment in this promising field. On the one hand, we will extend our production footprint in Europe, North America, and Asia. On the other hand, we will strengthen our product range and systems competence – particularly with air conditioning compressors, which are already economically significant in today’s global automotive industry.”
