Automotive suppliers on an expansion course: VW-Schreck Prevent takes over German casting specialists

01/23/2018

Auto parts supplier on expansion course VW Schreck Prevent takes over German casting specialists

DPA

Headquarters of automotive supplier Prevent in Warmenau near Wolfsburg (Lower Saxony).

This acquisition should be the VolkswagenBuyers eyeing with gawky eyes: Those by their spectacular dispute with VW Became known Prevent Group buys again in Germany. In the hostile takeover of the supplier Grammers last year, the preventive group controlled by the Bosnian Hastor family failed, the kitchen manufacturer Alno acquired from Hastors is broke – but now Prevent succeeds in acquiring a smaller German automotive supplier: Prevent acquires the Saarland casting specialist Halberg Guss.

The Federal Cartel Office has approved the acquisition of Halberg casting with about 3000 employees by the Prevent belonging to Castanea Rubra Assets GmbH, said a spokesman for investors on Monday. About the purchase price had been agreed to silence. Previously, the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” reported on it.

According to the information, Halberg produces crankcases, cylinder heads and crankshafts for cars and trucks in Saarbrücken, Leipzig and Cape Town in South Africa. According to the company, customers include all major car manufacturers, including VW. According to the speaker, Halberg is now the third foundry in the Prevent Group. So far, the company had heard the Süddeutsche Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft.

In the summer of 2016, two Prevent subsidiaries no longer supplied gearbox parts and seat covers to Volkswagen in the dispute over money for a canceled project the production temporarily paralyzed, The failed takeover of power by the Bavarian supplier Grammer also caused a stir. The carmaker Daimler has sued Prevent for damages due to a delivery dispute.

Car expert Stefan Bratzel from the Center of Automotive Management sees the strategy behind the acquisitions as indispensable. “The Prevent Group has no choice but to develop blockade potential through acquisitions,” he said. The action at VW has smashed a lot of porcelain in the whole industry. Now every manufacturer will look again, if he could protect his production differently. Ultimately, Prevent must therefore be interested in relaxing the relationship again, said Bratzel. Otherwise, the course will not work in the long term.

wed / dpa

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