Hella restructure sees €600m BTHC sell off
Mahle and Forvia Hella have completed the €600m sale of their German joint venture BHTC to Auo in Taiwan.
The sale by Mahle Behr GmbH and Forvia Hella was triggered by the acquisition of Hella by Faurecia after years of poor results.
The Behr-Hella Thermocontrol (BHTC) joint venture is headquartered in Lippstadt, Germany and is a leader in the field of climate control and a specialist for Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) systems. The company currently employs around 3,100 people worldwide and generated sales of €634 million in 2023/
The talks back in October were initiated against the background of a change of control clause in the joint venture agreement after Forvia (formerly Faurecia) had taken over the majority shareholding in Forvia Hella.
The deal marks the expansion of display panel maker into smart mobility business as well as a crucial opportunity to broaden its product portfolio and customer base to move from a display panel maker to a technology solutions provider. The company has been a supplier of automotive displays for over 20 years.
Faurecia, Hella merger to form seventh-largest Automotive supplier
“Against the backdrop of increasing global competition and industry value chain restructuring,” said Paul Peng, Chairman and Group Chief Strategy Officer of Auo, “the integration of AUO and BHTC will harness the core advantages of each platform to achieve complementary synergies. By leveraging both companies’ global operations, local manufacturing facilities, and top-notch visionary research and engineering teams, we aim to accelerate the interconnection of world-wide automotive industry supply and value chains to provide outstanding and diverse innovative solutions for our global customers and partners.”
“BHTC is a well-positioned, future-oriented company. However, after consideration of all the framework conditions, we have jointly reached the conclusion that BHTC has greater growth opportunities under a new owner than in the current shareholder structures,” says HELLA CEO Michel Favre. “With our divestment from the joint venture, we are also continuing our established portfolio management. In this context, we are strengthening our focus and resource allocation on our core business groups Lighting, Electronics, and Lifecycle Solutions.”
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