Automotive supplier Flex-N-Gate Corp. announced plans to acquire seven Plastic Omnium plants in Europe as part of a planned divestiture of certain Plastic Omnium operations.
The European Commission cleared Plastic Omnium’s takeover of Faurecia’s automotive exteriors business in July on the condition that Plastic Omnium divest the seven production facilities -- four in France, one in Spain and two in Germany -- representing about 700 million euros ($728 million) in sales.
Plastic Omnium has now agreed to enter into exclusive negotiations with Flex-N-Gate. The transaction is expected to close in 2017.
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,” Flex-N-Gate CEO Shahid Khan said in a statement on Dec. 23.
Headquartered in Urbana, Ill., Flex-N-Gate ranks No. 38 on the Automotive News list of the top 100 global suppliers with worldwide sales to automakers of $6.1 billion in 2015. Plastic Omnium ranks No. 37 on the list, with sales to automakers of $6.2 billion in 2015.
