It is official: German automotive supplier Peguform (Bötzingen; www.peguform.de) has found a new majority owner, after the relevant antitrust authorities cleared the way for India’s Samvardhana Motherson Group (Noida; www.motherson.com) to acquire 80% of Peguform’s shares – see also Plasteurope.com of 15.07.2011. The contracts sealing the takeover were signed on 23 November 2011, when it was announced that Peguform will in future be known as Samvardhana Motherson Peguform (SMP, www.smp-automotive.com).

In addition to the automotive supplier, Samvardhana Motherson also acquired 50% of the shares in Peguform subsidiary Wethje Carbon Composite (Hengersberg / Germany; www.wethje-gmbh.de). The remaining shares of both companies are in the hands of previous majority shareholder Cross Industries (Wels / Austria; www.crossindustries.at).

The Indian group announced that Peguform’s HQ will remain in Bötzingen even though the German company and its production plants in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Slovakia and China will become an integral part of Samvardhana Motherson.

This is the latest automotive acquisition by the Noida-based conglomerate, which employs almost 40,000 workers in 90 production sites located in 23 different countries. In 2009, Samvardhana Motherson had acquired global rearview mirror manufacturer Visiocorp (see Plasteurope.com of 01.07.2009).