Continental buys out Rico Auto in hydraulics JV

International automotive supplier Continental has acquired Rico Auto Industries’ 50 percent shares in the Continental Rico Hydraulic Brakes India joint venture. With this, the company will be a fully owned subsidiary of Continental.

Since 2009, the plant in Gurgaon has been producing and supplying components for hydraulic brake systems to OEM customers in India. These include products and services consisting of calipers for front and rear axles, drum brakes, master cylinders, brake boosters and load sensing proportioning valves for all kind of passenger cars.

“India plays an important role in the growth strategy of our hydraulic brake systems business unit. The investment in the Gurgaon activities underlines our intention to add even more value to driving safety for the Indian automotive industry and end consumers. With our Indian operations we support worldwide OEMs with their production locations in India as well as Indian homebased OEMs”, said Dr Peter Laier, executive vice-president of the Hydraulic Brake Systems business unit, Continental Chassis & Safety division (pictured).

According to Claude dGama Rose, Country Head of Continental in India, “This acquisition also reinforces our commitment to the Indian market. We have strong growth plans and we will continue to invest in both development and manufacturing to introduce future technologies to this lucrative market, both in our automotive and rubber businesses in India.”

Continental is continuing to concentrate on the key components of its business strategy, one of the main ones being above-average profitable growth in the growth regions, including BRIC, especially in China, India and other Asian countries.

In India, Continental had made significant investments in 2011 by acquiring Modi Tyres and further committing to an investment of 50 million euros to ramp up the tyre business in the country. They also expanded the India Technical Centre in 2011, and are planning expansion of its automotive facilities in Pune and Manesar in 2012. The company believes that India will see improvements and capacity addition in infrastructure, which will trigger continuous growth.

With sales of €30.5 billion in 2011, Continental is among the leading automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, systems and components for powertrains and chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tyres and technical elastomers, Continental contributes to enhanced driving safety and global climate protection. Continental is also an expert partner in networked automobile communication. Continental currently has approximately 164,000 employees in 46 countries.