A new German-Italian joint venture making carbon ceramic brake discs and systems has been launched, following the granting of competition approval by the European Commission.
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The deal will involve a 50-50 merger of SGL Carbon, of Germany, and Brembo, of Italy. An SGL statement said the new company would be a leader in the sector and welcomed the “significant synergies in technological development, operations and marketing” involved. It added the new company, headquartered in the Milan area, would develop “next generation carbon ceramic brake discs with larger scale automated production as a medium-term target”.
SGL CEO Robert Koehler said: “Brembo SGL carbon ceramic brakes will be the worldwide benchmark in technology, design, development and production of carbon ceramic brake discs for sports and luxury cars.”
He added that, after “intense efforts”, carbon ceramic disc technology could now be applied on a wider scale and that Brembo was the “ideal partner…to bring this innovative product to the next level of industrialisation and commercialisation.”
Brussels approved the deal without condition, stressing that the new company would continue to face effective competition from high performance cast iron brake discs, while – for the time being at least – “carbon ceramic brake discs constitute a very moderate proportion of the overall high performance market.”
The joint venture expects sales of approximately EUR70m in 2009, and will employ 350 workers at its two sites in Meitingen (Germany) and Stezzano (Italy). The company’s current customer base includes Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Daimler, Ferrari, General Motors, Lamborghini and Porsche.
