Johnson Controls plans to sell a division making interior parts to private equity firm Atlas Holdings by 30 April, the company said.
A JCI statement emailed to just-auto said: “Johnson Controls signed a legally binding offer to sell its headliner and sun visor business to an affiliate ofAtlas Holdings. This pertains to the company’s operations that support these products in North America and Europe.
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“The transaction is expected to close by 30 April. Financial terms regarding the deal were not disclosed.
“We believe that divesting of these two product lines will improve the overall competitiveness of our interiors business, improve our profitability and enable us to further strengthen and focus on our core interiors business.
“The Ueberherrn, Germany plant and its employees (340 permanent employees are employed there), will transition with the business once the sale closes.”
The Milwaukee Sentinel noted that the company had sold off the product lines of its automotive electronics business in pieces and was expected to sell its non-seating automotive parts businesses this year, in divestitures that some analysts have said could raise about US$500m.
The report said the company wants to sell low-margin automotive interiors products and focus on higher-profit items like seats.
Interiors sales accounted for $4.2bn of JCI’s total sales of $42.7bn.
The western Michigan business news site mibiz.com reported employees at a plant in Holland would transfer to Atlas.
