Blackstone, the US private equity firm, has completed acquiring 33% stake in Sunjay Kapur-led Sona BLW and is set to merge the auto parts company with Comstar Automotive Technology, its other subsidiary in India. The combined company, to be called Sona Comstar, will offer products for conventional, hybrid and electric vehicles.
ET first reported this merger in November last year.
Blackstone had bought an almost 100% stake in Chennai based auto parts maker Comstar for about Rs 1,000 crore and the merger with Sona BLW will enable it to synergise the two acquisitions.
“The Indian automotive components space is attractive, both with India as a manufacturing hub for exports and as a domestic market… The combination of Sona and Comstar is highly synergistic,” said Amit Dixit, head of Blackstone India Private Equity. “There are opportunities to add on to this buy-and-build platform in this fragmented sector, especially in the current environment.” A drop in car sales in India and the upcoming switchover to electric vehicles have made growth in the domestic auto components industry uncertain.
Source: Economic Times 