Auto component maker Minda Industries (MIL) is bidding for Vimercati, an Italian full-service switch products supplier, which supplies automotive switches to car majors like BMW, General Motors and Fiat in the European market. The transaction is being valued at around $50-55 million, sources said.
MIL is believed to have also identified a couple of more target companies in the European market. The Delhi-based NK Minda group has set aside Rs 500 crore for expansion and merger/acquisitions, company officials said. Incidentally, the Minda group is the sole supplier of auto electrical switches to the ultra low-cost car Tata Nano to be launched this October. The company will look at supplying other components to the Nano once the company starts exporting it to other western markets.
Minda Industries is the flagship company of the NK Minda group. The Group has technical tie-ups with several international players like Tokai Rika (a Toyota group company), Italy-based Fiamm and France-based Valeo.
Currently, the group has 19 manufacturing facilities with a dominant market share in categories like two-wheeler switches, two and four wheeler horns and automotive lighting. MIL has its manufacturing plants in Manesar, Baddi, Pune, Aurangabad, Pantnagar and Bidadi and Indonesia.
With the domestic market showing a downturn, especially in the two-wheeler segment, the company is looking at exports in a big way. Through a marketing office in Uzbekistan, it would source components from its Indian operations. “Exports will help us use our unutilised local capacities,” said a company official.
The company is also catering to Indonesia, Vietnam and the Asean region, which are big two-wheeler markets. Its R&D lab in Japan is working with OEM players like Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda to develop products right from the concept stage.