RSB acquires US-based Miller Brothers

Pune-based engineering and automotive components manufacturer RSB Group announced on Wednesday its acquisition of Miller Brothers Manufacturing - a Michigan, US-based privately-held automotive components and products manufacturing company near Detroit.

R K Behera, chairman, RSB Group, told mediapersons that the acquisition deal of US $19 million will be financed through a mix of debt and equity, where US $3 million has been raised by RSB as equity and US $13 million has been raised as debt from a US-based bank.

Miller Brothers Manufacturing is a US $30 million specialty transmission component manufacturing company catering to GM powertrain, American Axle Manufacturing, Eaton and several other major OEMs in the US.

Through this acquisition, RSB will have a base in the heart of one of the world's biggest automotive markets and will gain access across major locations in the United States with an increased access to the European markets as well.

The addition of Miller Brothers would significantly increase RSB's international manufacturing, product design and marketing capacity, Behera said, adding that the two would together focus on increasing their market presence in the global arena.

"The acquisition of Miller Brothers is a critical step towards our vision to become a global industry leader providing customers with converged solutions. With the auto components market growing at an exceedingly faster pace, our focus in recent years has been to expand our presence into new markets and provide a wide portfolio of products in the automotive sector to reach out to our global client base," he said Chris Miller, chief executive officer of Miller Brothers Manufacturing, said, "We are very excited about this synergistic relationship. It allows us to leverage RSB's comprehensive product offerings in the auto and heavy vehicles' sector and strong quality processes in our customer base."

The RSB group is envisaging major benefits by this acquisition.

The acquisition will provide a front-end marketing, engineering and customer support infrastructure in the US.

RSB would also be able to bid and participate in large volume part programmes of OEMs, Behera said.