Urbana, Ill. — Automotive supplier Flex-N-Gate Corp. on Dec. 23 announced plans to acquire seven Plastic Omnium plants in Europe so Plastic Omnium can do its own acquisition.
The European Commission cleared Plastic Omnium's takeover of Faurecia's automotive exteriors business in July on the condition that Plastic Omnium divest seven production facilities — four in France, one in Spain and two in Germany — representing approximately 700 million euros ($728 million) in sales. Plastic Omnium has now agreed to enter into exclusive negotiations with Flex-N-Gate.
The French and Spanish plants are part of Plastic Omnium's bumper business and the German plants are dedicated to front-end modules. Through the acquisition Flex-N-Gate would establish its first manufacturing footprint in France and Germany.
“The pending transaction aligns with our core philosophies of implementing strategic acquisitions aimed to expand Flex-N-Gate's geographic footprint, continuing to serve our current customers with new capacities and forging new partnerships with important European automotive customers not presently within our company portfolio,” said Flex-N-Gate President Shahid Khan in a news release.
Headquartered in Urbana, Ill., Flex-N-Gate is ranked as the 38th largest automotive supplier in the world by Plastics News sister publication Automotive News. Plastic Omnium is ranked 29th.
The transaction is expected to close in 2017.