Valmet Automotive has inked a deal with Semcon to acquire its automotive engineering operations in Germany with 800 employees and annual turnover of EUR90m (US$97m).
The purchase, which includes Semcon’s automotive engineering service operations located in Germany and testing operation in Spain, comes just after Valmet’s partnership with battery and energy storage solutions company, CATL.
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“This acquisition radically expands our engineering services range and enables us to build and implement an overarching Valmet automotive engineering strategy,” said Valmet CEO, Ilpo Korhonen.
“Together with our existing engineering resources in Finland and Germany, we will have, after the acquisition, an engineering team of close to 1,000 employees.
“Customers are asking for enhanced engineering services, and now we have substantially strengthened our capabilities to provide what the automotive manufacturers need.”
The locations to be transferred to Valmet Automotive in Germany are in Wolfsburg, Ingolstadt, Rüsselsheim, Bad Friedrichshall, Sindelfingen and Munich.
The operations are divided into engineering services (body-in-white, exterior, interior, powertrain, electronics and vehicle), prototype production, testing and niche series production segments.
Long-term customers include all major German automotive manufacturers such as Audi, BMW, Daimler, Opel, Porsche and VW.
The transaction is expected to close during February.
Data from just-auto’s QUBE service shows Valmet and CATL’s partnership, will see the battery solutions company take a 22% stake in the Finnish supplier.
After the new share issue, the owners of Valmet Automotive are Pontos (39%), Tesi (39%) and CATL (22%).
CATL is a private Chinese company developing, manufacturing and providing after-sales services of lithium-ion battery solutions for electric vehicles and energy storage markets.
It is among the three leading electric vehicle battery providers globally, employing 10,000 staff.
