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Germany’s billionaire Schaeffler family has made a bid for Viton Technologies as the auto supplier’s heirs seek to expand their presence in electric vehicles.
Schaeffler, the Bavarian auto parts maker controlled by Georg Schaeffler and his mother, Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler, said on Monday it would pay 91 euros per share. The price for Vitesco, a fifth higher than Friday’s closing price, values the rival automotive group at about 3 billion euros.
Shares in Vitesco, which was spun off from supplier Continental two years ago, soared 20% on the news, hitting 91 euros in Frankfurt on Monday morning.
The Schaeffler family, one of Germany’s richest families, already owns 49.9% of electric vehicle specialist Vitesco and 46% of Continental AG, which makes tires and other auto parts.
The family, which has profited from Germany’s position as the world’s leading automaker, is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the industry’s historic shift to electric vehicles, in which China is rapidly gaining dominance.
Schaeffler announced last year it would cut 2% of its workforce, or about 1,300 jobs, as it warned of a glut of internal combustion engine parts.
Schaeffler Chief Executive Klaus Rosenfeld said on Monday that the successful acquisition means that the company will be able to provide a “complete set” of solutions in the field of electric vehicles and traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.
“In Europe, competition from Chinese automakers will become more intense,” he said. “Guess what, they need local suppliers.”
Schaeffler said the acquisition will bring synergies worth 600 million euros a year by 2029, in part because it wants to “simplify” the company’s shareholder structure and allow families to give up control of voting shares.
Georg Schaeffler said in a statement: “For my mother and myself as family shareholders, giving up voting rights is a decisive step, which we have carefully weighed in the best interests of the company. “
Schaeffler said the combined company will have annual sales of about 25 billion euros and 120,000 employees at more than 100 production sites around the world.
Schaeffler said it was “committed” to a friendly takeover of Vitesco, which said it would “carefully evaluate all information and (…) decide on next steps”.
In June, Vitesco Supervisory Board Chairman Siegfried Wolf was charged by Austrian prosecutors with money laundering in connection with a decades-long fighter jet deal.
This is not the first time this year that Wolff, who owns 5% of Vitesco and sits on Schaeffler’s supervisory board, has faced scrutiny.
The Austrian businessman, who is also a member of the supervisory board of Volkswagen owner Porsche SE, personally wrote to Vladimir Putin this year offering to use his connections in Germany to help him rebuild Russia’s auto industry.
At the time Volkswagen called the letter from the Porsche SE supervisory board member “annoying,” but Wolff had been a board member of Gaz Automotive, the automaker owned by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, before Russia invaded Ukraine. He retained all his positions in the German automotive industry. .
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