Amtek to shortlist bidders for German car parts maker Tekfor - sources (updated)
01/11/2016 16:22
(Adds detail, background)
By Arno Schuetze and Pamela Barbaglia
FRANKFURT/LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Loss-making Indian car
parts maker Amtek Auto AMTK.NS is expected to shortlist
bidders for its German division Tekfor as soon as next week,
people close to the matter said, a year after starting what has
been a lengthy sale process.
Amtek, which has switched advisors and is now working with
Rothschild ROT.UL on the sale, has received eight first-round
bids, valuing Tekfor at up to 520 million euros ($573 million),
one of the sources said.
Seven of the bids came from car parts makers, including a
state-owned Chinese firm, while one offer was made by a private
equity group, the source said.
People familiar with the industry said they see Spain's CIE
CIEA.MC - part-owned by India's Mahindra Group - and Canada's
Linamar LNR.TO as having strong chances of being shortlisted.
It is not clear whether Japan's Musashi Seimitsu 7220.T , which
earlier this year bought rival Hay Group, has also made an
offer.
"CIE is in a preliminary phase of analysis on the conditions
for the purchase of certain assets of Amtek Auto, such as
Tekfor," a spokesman for CIE said.
Amtek, Rothschild and the other bidders declined to comment
or were not immediately available for comment.
Tekfor is expected to produce earnings before interest,
taxes, depreciation and amortisation of about 80 million euros
this year. But people close to some of the bidders said that it
is unclear to them how much of that is sustainable.
Amtek is on a drive to cut debt and launched the sale of the
maker of driveline components formerly known as Neumayer Tekfor,
just two years after buying it out of insolvency.
Neumayer Tekfor was founded in 1942 and was involved in
several mergers before being bought up by Barclays Private
Equity, now Equistone, in 2005. It had two joint ventures with
Amtek before going into administration in 2012.
($1 = 0.9071 euros)
(Additional reporting by Jose Elías Rodríguez, Alexander Hübner
and Aditi Shah; Editing by Harro ten Wolde and Jane Merriman)
((arno.schuetze@thomsonreuters.com; +49.69.7565.1197; Reuters
Messaging: arno.schuetze.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: AMTEK TEKFOR/SALE