NEW YORK – Financier Wilbur Ross this week announced the latest progress in his mission to create a massive automotive supply company with the global footprint to match the automakers. This week, Ross added two automotive suppliers, Mitsuboshi Belting Kaseihin Co., Ltd. (MBK) from Tokyo Stock Exchange listed Mitsuboshi Belting, Ltd. and BST Safety Textiles GmbH (BST), formerly Berger Safety Textiles of Maulburg, Germany, from PPM Capital, the private equity division of Prudential plc, for a total price of $305 million, subject to normal closing adjustments.
MBK employs 742 people in two Komaki City factories and one factory in Yokosuka City, Japan. MBK supplies instrument panels, cockpits and other plastic products for automotive interiors to all of the Japanese automobile companies. The company also licenses its technology to Tong Yang Industry Co. Ltd. in Taipei, Taiwan for use in China.
BST is a leading international manufacturer of flat and one piece woven (OPW) fabrics for automotive air bags as well as for seat belts and commercial webbing. BST employs 1,250 people in four facilities in southern Germany, a facility in Poland as well as two facilities in Virginia in the United States and has proprietary technology for creating the OPW fabrics used for side curtain and rollover airbags. BST revenues are approximately $279 million per year and MBK’s are approximately $161,000 per year.
Ross is chairman of International Automotive Components Group. International Automotive Components Group was formed in October, 2005 by WL Ross & Co. LLC and Franklin Mutual Advisers, LLC to acquire the European assets of Collins & Aikman.
Ross said, "This acquisition by International Automotive Components Group Japan, our joint venture with Franklin Mutual Advisers, is the first by a Western auto supplier of a major Japanese automotive interiors and exteriors company."
International Automotive Components Group owns 56.5 percent of PLASCAR, a leading Brazilian automotive plastics company, as well as the former Collins and Aikman Europe, which in turn expects to complete the previously announced purchase of Lear Corporation’s European Interior Systems Division early in October.
WL Ross also owns 76 percent of Safety Components International Inc., a leading independent supplier of air bag fabrics and air bag cushions from plants in the U.S., Mexico, Europe, China, and South Africa. WL Ross & Co has sponsored more than $4 billion of private equity transactions in the steel, coal, textile, auto supply and insurance industries since its founding on April 1, 2000.
Ross added, "There are major synergies between these safety companies and our existing textile operations conducted through International Textile Group."
