Pricol set to acquire Brazilian component supplier

Coimbatore-based auto component maker Pricol Ltd all set to acquire a Brazilian-based auto component manufacturing company.

The buytout will constitute the company’s second manufacturing footprint outside India. It already has one manufacturing plant in Indonesia which caters to key customers in South East Asian countries.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said its board of directors in a meeting held on December 11, 2014 has proposed to acquire 99.99 percent of the stake in a Brazil-based auto component manufacturing company through its wholly owned subsidiary incorporated in Spain. The Brazilian company has registered a sales revenue of Rs 301 crore during calendar year 2013.

This acquisition will enable Pricol to make a foray into the Brazilian auto component Industry. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of January 2015

Speaking to Autocar Professional, Subbaiah K U, chief executive officer, Pricol, said that  the company is aggressively looking to tap the huge opportunities that the Latin American market offers, not only for passenger cars but also the two-wheeler segment, where Honda and Yamaha along with a few Indian two-wheeler makers have a strong presence.

Pricol operates in four business areas – Driver Information Systems (DIS), Power Train Products (PTP) Sensors and Switches and Fleet Management Systems (FMS) – and is one of the key suppliers of instrument clusters to a number of two-wheelers OEMs in India.

To strengthen its passenger car driver information systems, the company has established two joint ventures, one with Denso Corporation for addressing Japanese OEMs and another with Johnson Controls Enterprise for addressing European and American OEMs in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

In a better than industry growth rate, the company recorded a turnover of Rs 830 crore in FY14 and is looking to achieve double-digit growth in FY15.

The company has two plants in Coimbatore, one plant each in Pune and Manesar and two plants in Pantnagar.