Ruia Group acquires 60% stake in Henniges Automotive Grefrath

Kolkata-based Pawan Kumar Ruia Group, which owns Dunlop India, today said that it had acquired a 60 per cent stake in Germany's Henniges Automotive Grefrath GmbH, a supplier of automotive sealing systems to leading carmakers, for an undisclosed sum.

The German firm, which had a turnover of Euro 83.5 million last year and counts Daimler, BMW, Audi and Volkswagen amongst its clients, is the group's largest overseas buy, so far.

Last year, the Ruia Group had acquired UK's Schlegel Automotive Europe, also an automotive sealing systems company.

The acquisition was undertaken by a Mauritius-based special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the Ruia group, Wealth Sea, which bought a 60 per cent share in Draftex, a German-registered company.

Draftex, in turn, purchased the assets of Henniges Automotive Grefrath GmbH.

“This acquisition will ensure synergy with Schlegel Automotive and position the group as a global leader in the automotive sealing systems space.

Although there will be technology sharing between the two companies, they will remain separate,” the group's chairman Pawan K Ruia said today.

Hit by slowdown, Henniges Automotive was sick for a sustained period and eventually went for liquidation last year.

Subsequently, it has undergone substantial restructuring, including the trimming of its workforce by over 50 per cent, before being acquired by Draftex.

“After the heavy restructuring, we are very competitive now.

Daimler, BMW, Audi and Volkswagen have already given us advances against orders which will be readjusted with future sales.

Although we are now only manufacturing for high-end cars, we will explore opportunities to sell to the mass market,” Draftex director Juregen Hein said.

Hein 23 per cent equity of Henniges Automotive through his stake in Draftex, while the remaining 15 per cent is with Wolf Von Der Fecht, the administrator of the component maker.